US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that Washington intends to intensify economic pressure on Iran until the government agrees to a peace deal with President Donald Trump, including by targeting overseas assets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Speaking ahead of meetings with G20 finance ministers in Asheville, North Carolina, Bessent said the United States is working to locate and freeze Iranian assets held abroad, including accounts in the British Virgin Islands and luxury properties around the world.
“We are going to economically asphyxiate this regime," Bessent said during a discussion moderated by economist and Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow, as quoted in The New York Post.
“My job is to make sure that they want to have a deal, and they will want to have one," he added.
Bessent said the Treasury Department has identified IRGC-linked assets and warned that Washington intends to act against them.
“We are tracking down the IRGC’s assets, and I will say it on worldwide TV, just so you know: We know where in the British Virgin Islands your accounts are at these trust companies," he stated.
“We know the $100 million houses you have around the world. We are going to freeze those. We are going to our partners. We are going to close all that down."
Bessent specifically referred to offshore accounts and high-value properties, including assets in the British Virgin Islands and “$100 million houses." The latter appears to refer to allegations surrounding Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s reported $130 million London real estate portfolio.
His remarks follow the Treasury Department's announcement last week of “Operation Economic Outcast," an effort to isolate Iran economically. The campaign is being pursued alongside a US Navy blockade that Trump reimposed in July.
Bessent stressed in a CNBC interview Monday that the purpose of the pressure campaign is to bring Iran back to negotiations rather than seek regime change.
"The goal here is to create the conditions that they will want to come to the table. And the President’s been very clear. They have to give up their nuclear program. They have to turn over the highly enriched uranium, and they have to stop their support of proxies, and the strait has to be open," he said.
At the same time, the Trump administration has kept military action on the table. US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said last week that Washington has not ruled out military strikes in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
“By no means are we foreclosing using kinetic strikes anywhere in the Strait of Hormuz or around Iran," Hegseth told reporters.
Hegseth additionally said that Iran cannot withstand the economic pressure being imposed by the United States.