Watch: Scott Bessent Announces Details of ‘Unprecedented Campaign’ Against ‘Iran and Its Enablers’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Monday new sanctions aimed at cutting off the remaining economic lifelines allowing the Iranian regime to stay in power.

“Today, at President Trump’s direction, the United States Treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast, an unprecedented campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers,” Bessent told reporters.

“In the Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions, including those in third countries. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe,” he continued.

“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Bessent said.

In the Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions, including those in third countries. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections… pic.twitter.com/1fLyobUucu

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 24, 2026

The Treasury secretary noted that Iran has murdered and maimed more service members and citizens than any other terrorist regime on earth.

Bessent asserted, “Iran now faces a very clear choice with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy.”

“Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership. Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime,” he said. “Let me be clear, any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system. The clock just started ticking.”

Bessent said his office is sanctioning over 60 entities, individuals, and vessels involved in illicit nuclear and missile technology, along with cyber operations and oil smuggling, Axios reported.

“An economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American power,” Bessent explained.

“This is a sustained campaign to collapse every last option for Iran,” he said. “Recall that the Berlin Wall fell when ordinary soldiers decided not to shoot at their own people.”

President Trump has dismantled Iran’s military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program.

We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against…

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 23, 2026

The Treasury secretary did not reveal the deadline for compliance, but said, “We do not have infinite patience here.”

Axios highlighted, “Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the government does not deny the economic shortages and stressed that Iran should end the war now, while it is in a position of strength.”

However, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is also the country’s chief negotiator, wrote on X that the “Americans know that no one buys their bombast; the United States is not in an economic position to further restrict its relations with other countries.”

He added, “Iran’s trading partners, both in the media and through messages sent to us, have made it clear that they don’t take these statements into account anywhere.”

A reporter asked Bessent whether China would be subject to secondary sanctions if it continues to buy oil from Iran.

Bessent says China will get “no free pass” on Iran sanctions.

“If they facilitate transactions” that turn Iranian oil into revenue, “they will be targeted.”

“We know who they are. They know who they are.” pic.twitter.com/QfXmNHbUTu

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 24, 2026

“No one is above this,” Bessent replied.

“If they facilitate transactions” that turn Iranian oil into revenue, into repression, “they will be targeted,” the Treasury secretary said.

He added, “We know who they are. They know who they are. So when the hammer of U.S. Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves.”

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