Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is ready to use “financial violence” against Iran and plans to sanction another bank this week as Washington intensifies efforts to isolate Tehran.
Bessent Threatens Tougher Financial Pressure
“This is going to be financial violence if we have to,” Bessent told The Associated Press on Sunday ahead of Group of 20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina. “We are showing people that we know who you are, you know who you are, and this has got to stop.”
The threat marks the next phase of Operation Economic Outcast, the administration’s “Economic D-Day” campaign. Treasury launched the operation Aug. 24, sanctioning nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, individuals and vessels while expanding secondary sanctions across digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping.
Bessent said Treasury expects new secondary sanctions weekly, beginning with banks tied to Iranian activity. Such measures can threaten foreign institutions with losing access to the U.S. dollar system if they continue facilitating transactions for Tehran.
Treasury Targets Iran’s Banking Network
Treasury’s first major banking move came last Friday, when it proposed cutting Banque Misr’s UAE operations off from U.S. correspondent banking. Treasury said the Egyptian bank’s UAE business processed about $1.8 billion for 103 companies potentially tied to Iranian shadow-banking networks between January 2024 and June 2026. The proposal remains subject to a 30-day comment period.
Bessent will use the G20 meetings to press counterparts to join the campaign. China remains the biggest test as Iran’s leading oil buyer.
Asked whether Washington could sanction Beijing over continued purchases, Bessent told AP that “all options are on the table.” He dismissed suggestions that the administration was reluctant to confront China as “a completely false narrative that the media picked up on.” Bessent had previously warned that countries maintaining ties with Tehran risk “economic oblivion”.
Renewed Fighting Complicates Economic Strategy
The financial push comes as military hostilities flare again for the first time since late July. U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. Iran then fired missiles toward U.S. bases in Jordan, Reuters reported.
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