US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said Washington’s intensified economic pressure on Tehran is likely to force Iran to scale back its oil production.
Bessent said the Treasury Department has increased financial measures aimed at weakening the networks that support Iran’s economy.
“The Treasury Department, through Economic Fury, has targeted Iran’s international shadow banking infrastructure, access to crypto, shadow fleet, and weapons procurement networks,” Bessent said in a post on X.
He added that the steps also target funding channels for Iran-linked groups in the region as well as “independent Chinese ‘teapot’ refineries that support Iran’s oil trade”.
Bessent claimed that “these actions have disrupted tens of billions of dollars in revenue that would be used to fund” the Iranian government, adding that “Tehran’s inflation has doubled and its currency has rapidly depreciated.”
He also said Washington’s “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran, including a blockade on Iranian ports, was affecting the country’s oil exports.
“Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export terminal, is soon nearing storage capacity, which will force the regime to reduce oil production,” he said.
Bessent added that the situation was leading to “an additional approximately $170 million per day in lost revenue and causing permanent damage to Iran’s oil infrastructure”.
#By Al Jazeera