SCOTT BESSENT EXPOSES HOW IRAN’S ATTACK ON GULF ALLIES BACKFIRED — ALLIES NOW FREEZING IRANIAN ASSETS
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out exactly why Iran’s aggression is backfiring hard on the economic front.
Bessent explained the turning point: “A big mistake that the Iranians made was attacking their GCC neighbors, their neighbors in the Gulf because we had many very good allies who maybe weren’t completely transparent with us on the money, Iranian money that was in their banking systems all of a sudden became very compliant in terms of being willing to turn over accounts or help us freeze block accounts there.”
He detailed the full pressure campaign: “The incredible blockade — I really think it’s an economic blockade of funds and the physical blockade of the ships not going in or out of the Iranian ports. Karg Island is shut down, that’s our big oil loading facilities, and it means they’re gonna have to start taking down the wells now.”
The strategy is working. Iran’s own neighbors, once reluctant to fully cooperate on frozen assets, flipped once Iran struck them. Those assets are now being made available to repair the damage Iran caused in the Gulf.
Bessent called it “Operation Economic Fury” — and the results are showing up fast. The blockade is shutting down Iran’s oil exports at the source. The regime’s neighbors are turning over accounts they previously protected.
This is financial statecraft that hits the Iranian regime where it hurts while strengthening America’s Gulf partners.
