US Treasury chief vows ‘toughest sanctions in history’ against Iran

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Washington will impose the "toughest sanctions in history" on Iran as part of what he called the "greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world."

"The economic pressure means that we are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world," Bessent told business news outlet CNBC.

He said Washington would tell countries they are "either with us or against us."

"If you insist on doing business with them, either transferring money, buying their oil, they are doing seaborne ship transfers, then the US Treasury and the US government, they will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you," he said.

"So it is time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision, and we are going to squash the economy of this murderous regime, which will curtail their ability to project power through their proxies," Bessent added.

"It will mean that they cannot pay the military, and we have substantial inflation, both food inflation and ordinary inflation in Iran," he said.

He later told reporters at the White House that "economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner" from higher prices due to the bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz.

The US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April and signed a framework deal on June 17, launching negotiations toward a final agreement. But the talks later stalled over disagreements on security guarantees and freedom of navigation through Hormuz, one of the world's most strategic routes for global energy supplies and trade.

The US and Iran have recently exchanged more military strikes, with Washington launching attacks on targets inside Iran. Tehran responded by striking what it described as US military facilities and equipment in several Arab countries, including Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait.