The United States is likely to impose new secondary sanctions on Iran-linked financial institutions each week as Washington seeks to intensify economic pressure on Tehran, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday.
The measures are expected to initially target banks, with institutions potentially being cut off entirely from the US dollar-based financial system if they continue handling Iranian funds or supporting the Iranian government.
“You’re going to see a lot more of these every week,” Bessent said in an interview ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Asheville, North Carolina.
The Treasury launched the campaign, dubbed Operation Economic Outcast, last week by imposing sanctions on UAE branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr over alleged financial links to Iran. Bessent said the next step could involve severing an institution’s access to the dollar system.
Reuters reported that Bessent plans to use the G20 meeting to press finance ministers and central bank governors to cut economic ties with Iran or risk secondary sanctions, as Washington seeks to prevent countries and financial institutions from circumventing its measures.
“There can be no leakage,” Bessent said, warning that countries and institutions must choose between maintaining ties with Iran and complying with the US campaign.
However, he rejected criticism that the sanctions would be ineffective without targeting Chinese companies involved in Iranian oil purchases. Bessent said most Chinese purchases of Iranian oil had already been curtailed by the US blockade of Iranian ports, while the volume of Iranian crude stored on tankers was also declining.
He said the reduced oil flows indicated that US pressure on Iran was already having the intended effect.
