WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is teasing unprecedented new economic actions against Iran as negotiations to end the nearly six-month war sputter.
“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country,” Bessent said in a Thursday night interview with Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt.
Bessent has led the so-called Operation Economic Fury this year to support the Pentagon’s Operation Epic Fury — and recalling how his efforts last year helped spark an inflation crisis inside Iran, which led to mass protests in December and January.
The Treasury secretary did not specify how the US might further attempt to cut off Tehran after taking increasingly aggressive actions to sanction money-changers, cryptocurrency and other sources of revenue — coinciding with President Trump’s naval blockade halting most oil output.
Bessent’s department is legally restricted from previewing specific sanctions actions — making it unclear what his new tactics might entail.
“The kinetic war ended after several weeks, and we went from Epic Fury to Economic Fury. And at the president’s orders, we have raised the level even again,” he said on Newsmax.
“I think the reason we are succeeding is because it is a one-two punch. People say, ‘Well, you know, Cuba lasted a long time. Venezuela lasted a long time.’ Venezuela immediately crumbled when we put the blockade on.
“So it will be a combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before, and the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in or out of the Iranian ports,” Bessent said.
Democrats who think Iran has never been stronger are “uninformed, deranged, and have no idea what they’re talking about,” he added.
