On June 12, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed media reports about his plans to seize Iranian financial assets frozen in institutions and use them to pay the costs of the Iran war. “The Iranian regime will lose the zero-sum game it is playing,” he said on X. “Any damage it inflicts on our allies in the Gulf will be paid for with funds extracted from Iranian Accounts. Any tolls paid to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority will be offset by funds extracted from their accounts. Every attack Iran launches will only deepen the economic and financial consequences it faces.”
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi had already condemned Bessent’s plan on June 7. In his own posting on X, he advised Washington to look at America as “the main source of arson, aggression, and instability in the region.” He also argued that the countries that host U.S. bases that were used to launch attacks on Iran were in no position to demand reparations.
“Third,” he continued, “Iran’s assets are neither war spoils for Washington nor a payment fund for its allies. Any seizure, transfer, or allocation of Iran’s property without the consent of the Iranian government is itself a new internationally wrongful act, giving rise to the responsibility of the United States—especially under conditions where it claims to seek negotiation and understanding—and will also prompt an appropriate response from Iran.”
