U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a video he posted showed no crude tankers at Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil-loading terminal; Treasury says its sanctions campaign targets Iran’s illicit revenue and financial channels.
Treasury launched Operation Economic Outcast on Aug. 24 at President Trump’s direction as a whole-of-government effort. The department says it targets sources of the Iranian regime’s illicit revenue and networks and channels used to smuggle oil, evade sanctions and fund terror. Treasury said it is coordinating with U.S. agencies and partners including the European Union, the United Kingdom and Gulf countries. Its announcement also drew an analogy to the World War II D-Day campaign.
Treasury warned that entities facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion on Iran’s behalf risk losing access to the U.S. financial system. It said the campaign also increases sanctions exposure for non-U.S. persons doing business with the Iranian regime.
On Oct. 21, Treasury sanctioned a law firm and shipping agents it said supported illicit Iranian shipping. In the same release, it identified cargo vessels as blocked property.
Bessent posted the Kharg Island video on X on Oct. 22 and wrote, “No crude tankers in sight.” He described the island as “a monument to the one thing the Iranian regime can still produce: failure,” and said the regime’s actions punish ordinary Iranians. Separately, he characterized the campaign as cutting off the regime’s oil lifeline and denying it resources for terrorism and nuclear procurement.
