At The WEF, Scott Bessent Says The Quiet Part Out Loud About Sanctions On Iran.

The US Secretary of the Treasury, At The WEF, Admitted The Truth About U.S. Sanctions On Iran.

At the World Economic Forum (WEF), in an interview with Fox Business, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, said the quiet part out loud about sanctions on Iran, boasting that they caused their economy to collapse and led to the recent protests in Iran.

When asked, “Do sanctions actually work (on Iran)?”, Bessent replied:

If you look at a speech I gave at the economic club of New York last March, I said that I believe the Iranian currency was on the verge of collapse, that if I were an Iranain citizen, I would take my money out.

President Trump ordered treasury and our OFAC division, (Office of Foreign Asset Control) to put maximum pressure on Iran, and it’s worked because in December, their economy collapsed, we saw a major bank go under, the central bank has started to print money, there is a dollar shortage, they are not able to get imports and this is why the people took to the streets.

He added, “This is economic statecraft, no shots fired, and things are moving in a very positive way here.”

Indeed, at the economic club of New York speech referenced by Bessent, he boasted that U.S. sanctions were intended to“collapse” Iran’s economy, saying, “Last month, the White House announced its maximum pressure campaign on Iran designed to collapse its already buckling economy. The Iranian economy is in disarray; 35% official inflation, has a currency that has depreciated 60% in the last 12 months, and an ongoing energy crisis. I know a few things about currency devaluations, and if I were an Iranian, I would get all of my money out of the Rial now.”

He added that the sanctions were intended to “Make Iran Broke Again” in order to force regime change, saying:

This precarious state exists before our Maximum Pressure campaign, designed to collapse Iranian oil exports from the current 1.5-1.6, million barrels per day, back to the trickle they were when President Trump left office.

Iran has developed a complex shadow network of financial facilitators and black-market oil shippers via a ghost fleet to sell oil, petrochemical and other commodities to finance its exports and generate hard currency.

As such, we have elevated a sanctions campaign against this export infrastructure, targeting all stages of Iran’s oil supply chain. We have coupled this with vigorous government engagement and private sector outreach.

We will close off Iran’s access to the international financial system by targeting regional parties that facilitate the transfer of its revenues. Treasury is prepared to engage in frank discussions with these countries. We are going to shut down Iran’s oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities.

We have predetermined benchmarks and timelines. Making Iran Broke Again will mark the beginning of our updated sanctions policy. Watch this space. If economic security is national security, the regime in Tehran will have neither.

Indeed, as Scott Bessent admitted, the sanctions on Iran led to the recent protests in Iran over concerns around the economy, which were soon infiltrated by the CIA and Mossad.

As the U.S. intelligence contractor Stratfor wrote :

The unrest was initially triggered in part by the Iranian rial hitting a record low of 1.45 million to the U.S. dollar on Dec. 28, prompting shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and other commercial districts in the city to take to the streets to protest the worsening economic situation, with Iran’s annual rate persisting above 40% … Iranians’ economic frustrations have been simmering for years amid ongoing U.S. sanctions.

In Trump’s previous term, when he first unleashed his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions on Iran, his then secretary of state, Mike Pompeo boasted that the sanctions were intended to make things, “much worse for the Iranian people [with the US sanctions], and we are convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime”.

As Al Jazeera documented, some of the effects of U.S. sanctions on Iran include:

Incomes: Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fell from more than $8,000 in 2012 to about $6,000 by 2017, and to a little above $5,000 in 2024, according to World Bank data.

The sharpest declines coincided with the reimposition and tightening of US sanctions under Trump’s campaign from 2018 onwards, which squeezed oil exports and access to global finance.

Oil exports and revenue: Iran’s oil exports fell by 60-80 percent after US sanctions were reimposed, stripping the government of tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue.

Iran was exporting about 2.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) of crude oil in 2011. The exports fell sharply after 2018, to an all-time low of just more than 400,000bpd in 2020.

Exports have gradually risen to about 1.5mbpd in 2025, but remain below their pre‑2018 levels.

Currency crash: The Iranian rial has collapsed in value. In the mid‑2010s, a dollar bought only a few tens of thousands of rials on the open market. However, by 2025, it bought several hundred thousand. Now, it can buy more than 1 million rials.

A devalued currency can help a country in promoting its exports, but sanctions have long blocked a bulk of Iran’s exports. Meanwhile, the currency crisis has made imports costlier, contributed to increased inflation, and reduced investor confidence.

The sanctions have also crippled Iran’s access to dollars from financial markets, making it harder for it to participate in international trade.

Corruption: The sanctions on Iran spurred a “sanctions economy”, or the particular way its elite have profited from them and reshaped the country’s economy around sanctions.

Sanctions create opportunities for corruption, forcing trade and finance into grey and black channels. For instance, oil has to be sold through intermediaries, such as front companies or shadow fleets. Imports and exports pass through informal channels. Public information about trade deals is sparse.

By Scott Bessent’s own admission, these intended effects of the sanctions on Iran were “designed to collapse its already buckling economy” in hopes it would lead to a mass uprising that could be exploited for regime change.

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