During a Feb. 5 Senate Banking Committee hearing where U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was testifying, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) asked whether there was more the U.S. could do to put pressure on Iran. Bessent’s response was telling, wherein he essentially admitted the U.S. consciously created a dollar shortage in December to trigger the protests in Iran. What follows are Bessent’s response to the question:
“What we can do at Treasury and what we have done is created a dollar shortage in the country. At a speech at the Economic Club of New York in March, I outlined the strategy. It came to a swift and I would say grand culmination in December when one of the largest banks in Iran went under. There was a run on the bank. The central bank had to print money. The Iranian currency went into free fall. Inflation exploded. And hence, we have seen the Iranian people out on the street.”
