Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared Tuesday that Iran’s leadership is already “panicking” under President Donald Trump’s mounting economic offensive — pointing to stark warnings from Tehran’s own president and parliament speaker about the country’s deteriorating economy while vowing to continue severing the regime’s financial lifelines until it “stands alone.” “Iran’s leadership is admitting what the world can now see: the pressure is working,” Bessent wrote on X, one day after the administration launched Operation Economic Outcast. Bessent highlighted recent remarks made before Monday’s rollout from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who acknowledged the country’s mounting economic shortages while declaring that “the war must come to an end at some point.”
He also highlighted an even starker warning from Iranian Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf about whether Iran could sustain its military strength while its economy and living conditions continued to deteriorate. “No matter how much military power we have, if people are hungry and we don’t have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure,” Ghalibaf said.
Bessent pointed to the statements as evidence that Trump’s pressure campaign was already biting before Washington dramatically widened its economic offensive Monday with what officials have called an “Economic D-Day” designed to isolate Tehran and choke off the revenue streams sustaining the regime .Operation Economic Outcast initially targeted more than 60 individuals, entities, and vessels tied to Iranian oil revenue, weapons and missile procurement, and cyber operations, while widening secondary-sanctions exposure across five sectors Tehran exploits abroad: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. (Read More)
