Oil prices steadied on Friday but were on track for a second weekly rise on concern over Gulf energy exports. Oil hit a more than three-week high on Thursday after the sanctions threat, intended to force Iran to agree an end to a conflict that has stranded millions of barrels of Middle Eastern oil.
"I'm not sure why oil has popped up on this," Bessent told CNBC. "If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart," he said, using a term referring to military force.
Thousands of people have been killed in the war, which drew in Gulf nations and shocked markets as Iran flexed its ability to curb shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that carried about a fifth of all traded oil before February.
The U.S. and Iran have twice announced ceasefire deals, in April and June, aiming to restore the free flow of shipping through Hormuz on a path towards ending the nearly six-month-old conflict, but both quickly crumbled.
Iran has weathered near-continuous, punishing economic sanctions for nearly 50 years, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Before Bessent spoke, Iran's foreign ministry said it condemned U.S. economic and trade sanctions, calling them "economic terrorism" that would not "create even the slightest hesitation in Iranians’ determination to safeguard Iran’s independence, dignity and national sovereignty."
Bessent told CNBC he would share more details on the latest package and "talk about exactly what we're going to do" on Iran at a press conference on Monday.
"It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade (on Iran), and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history," he added, referring to a U.S. naval blockade imposed on Iran in April and paused for a month in mid-June.
"It is going to work in Iran and we are going to collapse this regime. It is time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision," he said.
Trump is under pressure at home to end the war, with high fuel prices dragging down his approval ratings and potentially threatening his Republican Party's control of Congress in midterm elections in November.
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