Newsmax: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is moving beyond financial sanctions to impose what he calls an “absolute isolation campaign” against Iran, including naval blockades, restrictions on air travel, efforts to close land routes, and plans to seize about $1 billion in cryptocurrency.
In an interview with Greta Van Susteren at Newsmax’s NPolicy Summit in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Bessent said the administration’s strategy is designed to completely quarantine Iran’s ruling regime, cutting off its access to international markets, transportation, and financial resources.
“We did have a maximum pressure campaign. Now we have an absolute isolation campaign and it’s working,” Bessent told Van Susteren.
Bessent said the administration’s efforts are already creating panic within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Citing a recent New York Times report, Bessent said the IRGC “is now panicking amongst themselves.”
“And that’s the key, because what we have done has never been seen before,” he said.
Bessent described an unprecedented effort to shut down Iranian oil exports through military action and maritime blockades.
“We have, we had military. Now we have the blockades, so nothing is going in, coming out or going in,” Bessent said.
He predicted the restrictions would bring Iranian oil exports to a complete halt.
“For the first time ever since they started pumping oil, the history of Iran, they will have no oil on the water for sale,” he said.
But Bessent emphasized that the campaign extends far beyond oil exports and traditional economic sanctions.
Bessent said the United Arab Emirates and Oman are cooperating with Washington and that the administration is working with Pakistan and Turkey to shut down overland routes into and out of Iran.
“UAE has been a good partner. Oman has been a good partner. We’re working with Pakistan and Turkey to cut off all the land routes,” Bessent said.
The Treasury secretary also described restrictions on international air travel intended to prevent Iranian officials and regime-connected elites from escaping the country’s growing isolation.
“We have quarantined them, uh, with airline flights,” Bessent said.
He mocked the foreign travel habits of Iranian officials, saying members of the IRGC could no longer visit “their plastic surgeon in London, their girlfriend in Paris, and their money in Geneva.”
“If they love the Islamic Republic of Iran, they are stuck there so they can enjoy it,” he said.
Bessent suggested that trapping regime officials inside Iran could exert psychological pressure on the country’s leadership.
The administration is also targeting financial assets held outside the traditional banking system.
“We’re probably gonna seize a billion dollars of crypto this week,” Bessent revealed.
“And, you know, we know where it is and we are isolating them,” he added.
The comments came as Van Susteren questioned whether U.S. sanctions were successfully squeezing Iran’s economy.
Bessent’s response made clear that the administration views the campaign as much more than a financial crackdown.
The administration’s stated objective is to isolate Iran economically and geographically while increasing pressure on the ruling regime and the IRGC.
“We have isolated them economically,” Bessent said, insisting that the expanded campaign is already producing results.