Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said the Trump administration is preparing to unveil new measures against Iran next week as the United States ramps up economic pressure aimed at bringing Tehran back to the negotiating table.
The administration is seeking an agreement to end nearly six months of hostilities and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“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 the economic isolation of a country,” Bessent said Thursday during an appearance on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
Bessent did not reveal specifics about the upcoming measures but said they would represent another escalation in the administration’s campaign to cut off money flowing to the Iranian government.
The U.S. has already imposed a naval blockade that has cost Tehran approximately $4.8 billion in oil revenue.
According to Bessent, President Donald Trump instructed the Treasury Department to “apply maximum pressure to the Iranian regime” as the administration increasingly turns toward economic warfare following previous strikes and threats that failed to bring the conflict to an end.
“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,” Bessent said.
The Treasury secretary said the administration has targeted Iranian “bank accounts, crypto wallets, [and] assets around the world” while attempting to cut off payments going to the regime and its proxies.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, said Wednesday that the U.S. military has the ability to maintain its blockade indefinitely.
“Indefinitely the United States Navy can maintain a blockade like that because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have, and we’ll continue to,” Hegseth said during remarks in Panama, according to Reuters.
His comments came as Trump again declared that the United States has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Trump touted the blockade Wednesday on Truth Social, saying it had become known as a “WALL OF STEEL.”
“Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” Trump wrote.
The president went on to claim that Iran has no Navy or Air Force, that its remaining soldiers are unpaid and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been “decimated and fleeing.”
“They have No Money — Their country is ‘shot,’” Trump added.
Trump has also pushed Tehran to pay reparations for casualties resulting from the conflict as well as for past grievances.
The administration’s next round of measures, according to Bessent, will add to the financial pressure already being applied as Washington attempts to force Iran back into negotiations and secure the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
