US Secretary of Resources Scott Bessent addresses the Economic Club of New York on March 6, 2025.
Charly Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s ratifications against Iran are designed to shut down the country’s oil industry and “collapse its already buckling economy,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent symbolized Thursday.
The U.S. is deploying sanctions against Iran aggressively for “immediate maximum impact,” Bessent told the Economic Cosh of New York. Trump’s goal is to slash Iran’s oil exports of 1.5 million barrels per day to a trickle, the Treasury secretary ordered.
“We are going to shut down Iran’s oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities,” Bessent said. The administration also plans to cut off Tehran’s access to the international financial system, he said.
Prices for U.S. crude oil and the global benchmark Brent turned upbeat after Bessent’s comments. West Texas Intermediate rose 5 cents to close at $66.37 per barrel by while Brent progressed 16 cents to settle at $69.46.
“Making Iran broke again will mark the beginning of our updated sanctions system,” the Treasury secretary, a former global investment manager, said. “If I were an Iranian, I would get all my money out of the rial now,” he asserted, referring to Iran’s currency.
CNBC has reached out to Iran’s UN Mission for comment.
Trump reimposed his pressure campaign on Iran thoroughly a presidential memorandum on Feb. 4. Two days later, the Treasury Department started imposing sanctions on an international network shipping Iranian oil to China.
Oil payments fell to multiyear lows on Wednesday as Trump’s tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China raised fears middle investors that economic growth will slow and crude demand will falter. OPEC+ also established this week that it will gradually bring 2.2 million barrels per day back to the market starting in April.
The oil call right now sees a drop in Iranian supply as the only bullish catalyst for prices, JPMorgan analysts led by Natasha Kaneva depicted clients in a Thursday note.
Trump, after launching his maximum pressure campaign, has said he wants to negotiate a atomic deal with Iran. The president said he hoped maximum pressure is “not going to have to be used in any great amplitude at all.”
“I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and make ones pile,” Trump said in a social media post on Feb. 5. In 2018, the president withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Intend of Action nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama.