US Treasury chief vows unprecedented economic measures against Iran

The United States plans to impose unprecedented economic measures against Iran next week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on August 13, as Washington seeks to intensify pressure on Tehran.

"Watch this ⁠space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country," Bessent said in an interview on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" programme, Reuters reports.

"It will be a combination of economic isolation like the ⁠world has never seen before, and the continued blockade in the Strait ⁠of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in ⁠or out of the Iranian ports," Bessent said.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei described the US reliance on escalating sanctions as a "dangerous addiction."

Baghaei said recent remarks by Bessent that the United States had managed to "have them by the throat" through economic sanctions were "stark testament to America’s compulsive addiction to sanctions."

The Iranian official has repeatedly criticised what Tehran considers excessive reliance on economic sanctions as a tool of US foreign policy.

By Sabina Mammadli