The US is going to apply measures that have “never been seen” on Iran, indicating Washington will continue to economically isolate the country and blockade its ports, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday.
“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 an interview on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” program.
“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,” he said.
He added that the Iran conflict has shown a “temporary spike in energy prices” and said: “We’re going to get to the other side of this and come down.”
US President Donald Trump has indicated that he planned to choke Iran economically. “We are low-keying it,” he told Axios over the weekend. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Friday targeted individuals, exchange houses and companies across several countries that it accused of helping Iran’s Shahr Bank move hundreds of millions of dollars clandestinely.
The Treasury has said these sanctions are its eighth in 2026 targeting Iran’s alleged shadow-banking system under Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
-CNN
“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 an interview on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” program.
“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,” he said.
He added that the Iran conflict has shown a “temporary spike in energy prices” and said: “We’re going to get to the other side of this and come down.”
US President Donald Trump has indicated that he planned to choke Iran economically. “We are low-keying it,” he told Axios over the weekend. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Friday targeted individuals, exchange houses and companies across several countries that it accused of helping Iran’s Shahr Bank move hundreds of millions of dollars clandestinely.
The Treasury has said these sanctions are its eighth in 2026 targeting Iran’s alleged shadow-banking system under Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
-CNN
