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US plans unprecedented economic isolation measures against Iran

14 August 2026 10:24 (UTC +04:00)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax on Thursday that the Trump administration will announce new measures against Iran next week that he said will take the economic isolation of the country to an unprecedented level.

"And 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 told "Rob Schmitt Tonight."

Bessent said the administration is escalating a financial campaign that began after President Donald Trump ordered the restoration of "maximum pressure" against Tehran last year and intensified after the start of U.S. military operations against Iran in February.

"A year ago … the president gave me the order to apply maximum pressure to the Iranian regime, and Treasury did," Bessent said.

Trump formally restored the maximum-pressure policy in February 2025, directing Treasury to impose sanctions or other enforcement measures against those violating Iran-related sanctions and to conduct a continuing campaign aimed at denying the regime and its terrorist proxies access to revenue.

Bessent said Treasury has targeted "their bank accounts, crypto wallets, assets around the world, cutting off payments into both the leadership in the regime and the government itself."

After Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign launched against Iran earlier this year, Bessent said the administration shifted its focus toward what Treasury calls "Economic Fury."

"We went from Epic Fury to Economic Fury," Bessent said. "And at the president's orders, we have raised the level even again."

Treasury has said Economic Fury has disrupted tens of billions of dollars in revenue that otherwise could have been available to Tehran and its proxies. Its actions have targeted Iran's shadow banking networks, oil industry, cryptocurrency holdings, weapons procurement networks and sanctions-evasion operations.

Bessent said the financial pressure is being paired with the continuing U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

"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.