US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said that Washington's economic pressures under Operation Economic Exclusion severely limited the Islamic Republic's ability to transfer money and provide financial resources to the Revolutionary Guards and groups supported by Tehran.
In an interview with CNBC, Besant said that the Islamic Republic "cannot pay the salaries of its soldiers" and more importantly, it faced a problem with access to dollars. He added that the reduction of Tehran's financial resources also limited the Islamic Republic's ability to rebuild and finance the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah.
The US Treasury Secretary said that the Islamic Republic is facing difficulty in transferring funds, and Washington is trying to cut off Tehran's ability to finance the groups it supports. He emphasized that America will not allow the Islamic Republic to continue to finance what he called the "campaign of terror". Basant also said that the officials of the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards, both in public statements and in private conversations, express concern about the economic conditions and the possibility of a "collapse". According to him, the economic pressure and the limited access to sources of foreign exchange caused Tehran to face additional restrictions on the financing of the military forces and the groups it supports. He described "Operation Economic Exclusion" as the most severe economic isolation operation and said that internal US government estimates show that Iran's economy may shrink by 25 percent from March 2026 to March 2027. Basant also claimed that Iran currently has no oil on the water for export, and some of its oil reserves remain behind the blockade line. In another part of this interview, the US Treasury Secretary said that a number of members of the Revolutionary Guards are worried about the current conditions and their lives and have settled "in shelters".