U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that the United States was “suffocating” Iran’s leadership through an economic blockade running alongside the American military offensive. Bessent made the remarks in a Fox News interview, citing a Treasury initiative launched three weeks earlier under direct orders from President Donald Trump. He said the pressure campaign was a whole-of-government effort.

What is the U.S. economic blockade on Iran?

The U.S. economic blockade on Iran combines naval restrictions with financial measures targeting anyone sending money to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Bessent described it as supplementing the Pentagon’s “Operation Epic Fury” through a Treasury initiative called “Economic Fury,” launched under Trump’s “max pressure” order from last March. “All hands on deck,” he said, across all parts of government.

How is the U.S. blockade affecting Iran’s economy?

Bessent said the blockade had left Iran’s leadership unable to pay its soldiers and was draining the regime of hard currency. Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council, echoed that assessment on CBS‘s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “They are having a hyperinflation,” Hassett said. “They’re starting to have hunger.”

Bessent said food and gasoline rationing were already in place inside Iran. He had written on X the day before, describing Iran’s leadership as “rats in a sewer pipe,” and stated that the blockade would continue until freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz was restored to pre-February 27 conditions. Iran’s oil industry is also reported to be under severe strain, with the U.S. Treasury projecting losses of $170 million per day.

What is happening at the Strait of Hormuz?

Both Iran and the United States have imposed restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for Gulf energy exports. Iran has blocked most commercial shipping in the waterway, while the U.S. Navy says it is preventing all vessels heading to or from Iranian ports. Both sides are reported to be negotiating as a fragile ceasefire holds.

Bessent said Treasury was tracking offshore assets held by the Revolutionary Guards, which he called “a corrupt institution” that had been “stealing from the Iranian people for years.” He said those assets would be preserved for the Iranian people once the conflict ends. The blockade, he added, would remain in place until full freedom of navigation through the strait was restored.