The United States has been fighting Iran for nearly six months, and it still lacks a clear win to show. That makes economic pressure look more appealing to the White House.
"If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart," Bessent said, using the military term for combat.
He called this the biggest economic campaign of its kind ever attempted. "This is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world," he said.
Bessent will share more details at a Monday news briefing. "We are going to collapse this regime," he said.
The strategy shift reflects a broader reality of the conflict so far: six months of sustained military operations have failed to produce a decisive victory, while the global economy has grown increasingly jittery over the threat to oil shipments. By moving the fight to the financial and commercial sphere, the administration hopes to achieve what airstrikes could not - the collapse of the Tehran regime - without the political and human costs of a prolonged ground war.
Anyone who stays connected to Iran is now in the crosshairs. Bessent said transferring money, buying Iranian oil, or moving cargo by sea will trigger the full enforcement power of the Treasury and the U.S. government.
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He also put allies on notice. "You are either with us or against us," Bessent said. That lines up with President Trump? Bessent's comments came while Trump's Truth Social posts call Tehran "on the ropes" and "hanging by a thread."
Trump reinforced the same point on Wednesday, saying Iran is close to collapse and asking allies to join what he called an "ECONOMIC HISTORY" for the United States. He has promised "major economic penalties against any country that" offers Iran any help at all, Trump said.
But the United Arab Emirates then said it is ending all commerce with Iran after a reported missile strike. It has been the first sign of the policy reshaping.
The ongoing naval cordon of Iranian harbors in the Gulf of Oman remains in place, and Bessent said the sanctions and the blockade work together. "We have the blockade, and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history," he said.
Iran's own economy is hurting. The country's economy is thought to have contracted during the war, and its inflation is at historic highs. Yet some experts warn that a collapse might not happen quickly. But Iran has limited its own territories to a way to hit.
Iran knows where that oil must come from.
Oil prices rose after Bessent's interview, so the market is not calm. The White House wants to avoid a full-scale war, but Iran still sits between the world and the oil it needs.
This conflict may no longer be about bombs, but it remains very much about oil, and oil still touches your wallet. The price of gas, shipping plastic, and the value of your portfolio can all react to something that happens around the Strait of Hormuz.
As long as the strait is open and constantly at risk, the Iran story will stay woven into the price of energy and into your money. A war this is no longer a bombing war is not the same as no war. For energy investors and regular budgets, the uncertainty just moved from the battlefield to the banks.
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