Trump’s Treasury Chief Vows Financial Warfare Against Iran

President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said Sunday that the United States is preparing what he described as the “single greatest financial offensive ever” aimed at Iran.

Bessent previewed the expected campaign in a Sunday op-ed for the Financial Times, where he issued a blunt warning to governments and businesses that continue to trade with the Islamic Republic.

“At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary,” Bessent wrote, ahead of a news conference scheduled for Monday afternoon.

He argued that Trump had already severely weakened Iran’s economy, writing: “President Trump has decimated Iran’s economy to a point where the rial has never been weaker and inflation has rarely been higher.” Bessent added that the regime’s “final refuge” is now what he called “the self-deception of fearful nations” that believe accommodating aggression can lead to lasting peace.

The Treasury secretary also targeted what he called Iran’s “enablers,” accusing countries that purchase Iranian petroleum of ignoring seaborne fuel transfers and the illicit use of their banks while hiding the full scope of their involvement.

“In short, these countries calculate appeasement of the regime to be the safer course,” Bessent wrote. “But they would do well to consider the consequences of sustaining it.”

He said nations that cut ties with Iran would benefit financially and diplomatically, claiming they would “deepen their access to global capital, reinforce confidence in their markets and attain the standing they seek in the world economy.”

Bessent warned that countries choosing to remain aligned with Tehran would face serious costs. “The alternative for those who tether themselves to Tehran is the foreclosure of any path to lasting prosperity,” he wrote, adding: “To become a sanctuary for terror is to become, in the eyes of the United States, a global pariah.”

If officials in Tehran now respond militarily to the US’s economic actions, Bessent said President Donald Trump would ‘respond swiftly and decisively.’

His comments echo those of the commander-in-chief, who has also threatened an ‘economic D-Day against Iran’ and vowed to impose ‘tremendous economic consequences’ on countries that do business with Tehran.

The goal is to ratchet up economic pressure on the Islamic Republic to get officials there to return to the negotiating table to end the war.

But Iran’s powerful security chief Mohsen Rezaei threatened retaliation against any nearby nation that joins the US crackdown and warned Tehran could stop oil from flowing through the Persian Gulf.

‘If countries neighboring Iran cooperate with the Americans in the economic war, we will target their interests,’ Rezaei declared.

‘The world has realized that Trump’s bluster is nothing but empty talk,’ Rezaei said in an interview with Iranian state media on Saturday.

He then turned his fire on countries surrounding Iran, warning that Tehran could dramatically widen its economic confrontation if they side with Washington.

Iran does not want to expand the war across the Middle East, Rezaei insisted, but he delivered a threat to his neighbors.

‘If they start such an action, we will not allow a single drop of oil to pass through the Persian Gulf,’ Rezaei added.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have spent years developing and expanding alternative export routes that reduce their reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing oil to reach ports on the Red Sea and Gulf of Oman.

But Rezaei indicated those routes may not necessarily be beyond Tehran’s reach either, threatening alternative pathways used to move Gulf oil to international markets.

His comments amount to one of the clearest warnings yet that Iran’s hardline security establishment could increasingly regard cooperation with Washington’s economic campaign as participation in the wider conflict.

Yet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a dramatically different tone on Sunday, declaring that his country ‘cannot continue with war forever.’

Pezeshkian openly defended the memorandum of understanding Iran reached with the United States in June, despite reported reservations from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

That agreement ultimately collapsed last month.

Still, the Iranian president argued that Tehran cannot remain indefinitely trapped between outright conflict and an elusive peace.

‘One day, a decision must be made to save the country from the state of “neither war nor peace,”‘ Pezeshkian said.

He maintained that officials directly involved in negotiations believed the agreement with Washington had offered Iran its best available path forward.

‘By implementing this memorandum, we can resolve the problems with logic and dignity,’ Pezeshkian said, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Pezeshkian made clear Sunday that military strength alone could not protect the Islamic Republic if its people lost faith in their government.

‘We must stand with the people,’ he said. ‘If we cannot serve them and convince them that we all belong to the same land and country, then even if we possess the greatest military power, we will be defeated.’

The president said his government was fighting to improve the lives of Iranians battered by the country’s economic difficulties.

It was trying with all its strength, he said, to ‘steer inflation, public problems, people’s livelihoods, people’s jobs, people’s future, and people’s lives towards dignity and pride.’