The US Department of the Treasury is declaring a victory of sorts in its mission of putting the economic screws to the rogue regime led by Iran.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent posted on X earlier today that the “United States is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it.”
This follows reports that Iran’s ability to transport oil, its lifeline for earnings, has ended, and no tankers are shipping the valuable commodity.
“Treasury launched Operation Economic Outcast to tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue that funds the IRGC and murderous Iranian regime. Less than two months later, we have decimated every layer of Iran’s oil lifeline. Its shadow tanker fleet stands depleted. Its main oil terminal sits empty. And its offshore reserves are now exhausted. Meanwhile, ordinary Iranians continue to endure a deepening economic crisis because the regime squanders its resources on violence and terrorism abroad instead of the prosperity of its people at home.”
While Iran is struggling, the IRGC-led regime is leveraging pre-blockade stocks and other reserves to manage the economic challenge and prioritizing its own operations, including military needs. Some estimates place Iran’s ability to weather the storm at months.
Iran has also used crypto to evade sanctions, but this strategy has now been limited.
US adversaries China and Russia continue to seek to support Iran, but the blockade and other sanctions have impacted their ability to do so. VTB Bank, one of Russia’s largest financial institutions, has opened bank offices in Iran to support the government’s goals. Last month, the Treasury declared that VTB is “now among the most comprehensively sanctioned financial institutions in the world.”
While funds diminish and resources are stretched thin, the IRGC continues to hold on even as reports of armed conflicts emerge, albeit limited. So the question remains: how long will the regime resist, will the Iranian population foment a true uprising, and will the administration continue to press the country economically and recommence strategic bombing, and to what end?
