President Trump said this week that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain urged him to give the United States’ economic pressure campaign against Iran more time before considering an expansion of military action against Tehran.
In an interview released Thursday with Stephen A. Smith, Trump said the five Gulf governments favored sticking with the current approach as Iran’s economy continues to deteriorate. Asked whether he would otherwise have expanded military operations against Iran, Trump said, “Yes, I would.”
The comments came the same week Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave a detailed public account of the administration’s economic campaign against Iran, known as Operation Economic Outcast, which launched in late August and has targeted banks across the Middle East and beyond that handle Iranian money.
Bessent told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday that he had relocated to a military base after receiving death threats tied to his role in the campaign, and said he would not be deterred. “F the Iranian leadership,” he said. “It means what we are doing with Operation Economic Outcast is working.” He described the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as “like a dangerous cornered animal.”
A senior administration official said earlier in the week that threats against Bessent had “reached more than an advanced stage,” prompting him and his family to move into military housing on Secret Service advice, according to Fox News.
Pressure Campaign Spans the Region
Speaking later Friday at the Heritage Foundation’s Forum 2026, Bessent said Treasury action has reached deep into Gulf and regional banking networks. He cited action against an Egyptian bank operating in Dubai that he said had moved $1.8 billion for Iran over the preceding year, along with a major Turkish bank and international branches of a leading Russian bank.
He said the administration had also restricted international flights used by Revolutionary Guard members to travel abroad, limiting their ability to visit relatives, romantic partners or access overseas financial assets. Bessent said those restrictions were among the reasons IRGC members have threatened his life.
A U.S. naval blockade, imposed after a military campaign that damaged much of Iran’s conventional forces and defense infrastructure, has halted Iranian oil exports while commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz continues under American protection. Bessent said some nights now see more crude passing through the strait than before the conflict began.
According to figures U.S. Central Command released Wednesday, nearly 4,000 commercial vessels have carried about 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil through the strait under American protection, compared with zero Iranian oil exports since the blockade began, Bessent said.
Iran’s Economy Under Strain
Bessent said Iran’s currency, the rial, has collapsed from roughly 600,000 to the dollar in March 2025 to 3 million now, with inflation approaching 200 percent and gasoline shortages leaving motorists waiting hours to fill up. He said Iran has been left without oil shipments on the water for the first time in its history as a producer.
Bessent said Iran likely missed its best chance at a favorable deal with Washington by failing to reach one before last week’s midterm elections. “Iran probably would have gotten a better deal before the election,” he said. “Now President Trump doesn’t think we need a deal, and we’re just going to keep squeezing them.” He also accused Tehran of failing to honor a memorandum of understanding reached in Islamabad over the summer.
“Eventually gravity is going to kick in. It’s going to be a long, cold winter for the Iranians,” Bessent said, predicting that worsening conditions will eventually force Tehran back to the negotiating table.
Bessent also criticized The Wall Street Journal for publishing an aerial photograph of his Georgetown home in January 2025, saying the paper had been asked to withhold the image for security reasons and calling its decision “highly irresponsible and dangerous.”
“100% it was worth it. President Trump took action that had been needed for 47 years,” Bessent said of the broader campaign against Iran.
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