Scott Bessent Says US Will Impose Unprecedented Measures on Iran
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RIYADH, August 14 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) — US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington will announce new measures against Iran next week, describing them as economic pressure that has “never been seen” before.
“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 Thursday during an interview on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” program.
Bessent linked the coming measures to further economic isolation and the continuation of Washington’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
“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.
Addressing the economic impact of the conflict, Bessent described the rise in energy costs as a “temporary spike in energy prices.”
“We’re going to get to the other side of this and come down.”
US President Donald Trump has also indicated that Washington intends to intensify economic pressure on Iran.
“We are low-keying it,” Trump 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. The department accused them of helping Iran’s Shahr Bank clandestinely move hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Treasury Department said the action was its eighth in 2026 targeting Iran’s alleged shadow-banking system under Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
Source: CNN
