Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warns Iran will have nothing left to trade within two weeks after final oil deliveries, pressure he says has the regime desperate for a deal.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Iran is down to a thin residual stock of crude and is about to lose its last meaningful export leverage.
He said only about 15 million barrels of Iranian oil remain on the water, with final shipments to China likely within the next two weeks. After that, he argued, Tehran will have an empty trade position and little left to bargain with.
“I am confident, given that there’s only 15 million more barrels of Iranian oil on the water, that Iran will have nothing left to trade for anything,” Bessent said, in remarks the New York Post reported from Washington.
“Probably within the next two weeks, they are going to make their final deliveries of oil to China, and then they will have nothing,” he added. “It is an empty set. And I believe that they are feeling the pressure here, and that’s why they want a deal.”
The warning lands after months of stepped-up U.S. pressure. Since a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran collapsed in July, the Trump administration has enforced a sweeping blockade that cuts off vessels entering or leaving the regime’s ports.
Last month Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast, a more aggressive push aimed at foreign countries and companies still doing business with Iran. The campaign pairs naval enforcement with sanctions designed to choke off oil revenue and other financial lifelines.
Breitbart reported Bessent describing the effort as “the greatest economic isolation operation in the history of the world,” with the stated goal of asphyxiating the regime until it changes course. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the United States is strangling Iran’s economy to force either a policy shift or a new regime, while U.S. Central Command reported redirecting 92 commercial vessels, disabling three, and boarding two under the blockade. After Iran fired missiles at U.S. ships, forces struck three Iranian crude carriers.
That posture has kept Bessent at the center of high-stakes Treasury work even as security threats around his role have drawn federal attention in separate cases.
Just the News reported that Operation Economic Outcast targets more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels enabling Iran’s oil revenue, nuclear and missile technology, and cyber operations. The package hits five lifelines, digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping, under what Bessent called a “zero leakage” approach, with China flagged as a major purchaser of Iranian oil through shadow fleets and banks.
“Iran now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy.”
Bessent also said there would be “no minimal breathing space for the regime to rebuild its capacity to inflict terror against America and the world.”
Iran’s economy is not the only pressure point. The Strait of Hormuz, once the path for nearly one-fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies each year, has seen sporadic Iranian attacks on vessels since early March. The Trump administration says U.S. military escorts are moving ships along a route close to the shores of Oman.
Bessent insisted the waterway is functioning. “The straits are open,” he said, adding that traffic is “averaging now 15 to 22 million barrels a day” after sitting at about 20 million before the conflict.
Last week, top Iranian officials floated a seven-day ceasefire proposal: reopen the strait in exchange for the United States unfreezing roughly $12 billion in assets, lifting the blockade, and easing sanctions. President Trump rejected the offer, telling reporters it was not acceptable. Future terms, Bessent said, remain at the president’s discretion.
Bessent has discussed Hormuz timing before, including when he said a deal involving the strait could move quickly as regional shipping risks mounted.
Bessent’s core case is straightforward. Iran is isolated. It is a pariah state. And any next agreement has to stick because the last one did not.
“They are isolated from the world,” he said. “They are a pariah state. And my job is to make sure that, when they come with a deal, that they want to stick to it. They did not stick to the MOU.”
“Next time, if there is a deal, and that’s at President Trump’s discretion, they will stick to it, because they are on their knees.”
That line of argument fits a broader pattern in Bessent’s public role, pressing hard on fiscal and market discipline at home while using Treasury tools abroad, including when he pushed back on partisan attacks over currency and financial literacy.
Critics of maximum pressure have long claimed sanctions only hurt ordinary people and never change regimes. The administration’s reply is visible in the ledger Bessent described: dwindling barrels on the water, a blockade that severs shipping, sanctions aimed at enablers, and a rejected ceasefire that asked Washington to unlock cash and ease isolation before Tehran proved it would keep its word.
Oil is the regime’s main hard-currency engine. When the last cargoes clear and the trade set goes empty, the choice Bessent outlined becomes less theoretical. Isolation or a path back to normal commerce, with compliance enforced this time, not assumed.
Regimes that fund terror with oil revenue rarely reform out of goodwill. They move when the money runs out and the alternatives disappear.
