Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed the U.S. policy of maximum economic pressure on Iran while positioning additional military assets in the region. “What the Iranians understand is brute force, whether it’s in the financial markets, whether it’s on the military field and at Treasury, we have exercised maximum pressure,” he told Fox News yesterday following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’re continuing to do that.”
Bessent told the network that he has received clear orders from the president to keep pressure on the Islamic regime, saying that Trump ordered him last March to exert maximum pressure against Iran, including sanctions. He claimed that the strategy has “worked.”
When asked whether Trump may have to resort to military action similar to last summer’s U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, Bessent said he didn’t want to get ahead of current talks, but that administration officials are positioning assets and weighing options. Trump, he said, “believes that he can get a much better deal from the Iranians now after Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, but it’s up to the Iranians.”
