Editor’s note: this story was translated from the original VOA Persian article.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has weighed in on the resignation of Iran’s oil minister earlier this week, and he suggested his replacement will have little work left, as a rigorous U.S. naval blockade halts Iran’s oil exports.
“Iran has a new oil minister. Considering Iran has not loaded a single barrel of crude onto a vessel since August 25th, what is the oil minister managing?” Bessent asked Tuesday in a post on X.
Hamid Bovard, the chief executive of the Iran’s Oil Company was appointed after Mohsen Paknejad who held the post for over two years has resigned for “personal reasons.”
Bessent said the U.S. economic campaign against Iran is delivering results. He pointed to the free-fall of the value of the Iran’s national currency, the rial, and the disruption in the transfer of crude oil over the past month. Iran’s currency was traded at 2.5 million rials against a U.S. dollar on Tuesday.
Bessent also cited statements made by high-ranking Iranian regime official acknowledging the deterioration of the country’s economy as evident signs, including one of the regime’s senior security official, Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who had said the country was facing one of the most difficult periods in its history.
In a post on the social media platform X on Monday, Bessent wrote: “Economic outcast is delivering results.”
“The Iranian regime allows its own people to suffer while it pours resources into terrorism,” he said. “Operation Economic Outcast will not stop until the Iranian regime understands that the Trump Administration will never allow the regime to fund terrorism and develop a nuclear weapon.”
Launched on August 24, 2026, Bessent said the aim of the economic pressure against Iran was to sever Tehran’s financial and economic connections and sources of revenue, while targeting networks that circumventing sanctions on Iran around the globe.
In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department has in recent weeks imposed new sanctions on Iran’s aviation sector as well as its automotive, railway, steel, and manufacturing industries.
On October 1, the Department also sanctioned 10 individuals and entities in several countries for allegedly supplying weapons and parts to the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Defense.
On the same day, the Treasury said it sanctioned A7 network, a Russian firm it alleged is used by the Iranian regime to evade sanctions. The Department also proposed measures that include establishing a rule that prohibits transmittals of funds involving A7 networks’ sub agents.
“Treasury is dismantling the financial infrastructure that allows Iran and other adversaries to evade sanctions, move illicit funds, and undermine the integrity of the global financial system,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
Meanwhile, Mohsen Rezaei, a senior security official of the Islamic Republic, described Iran’s economic situation as one of the most difficult periods in the country’s history at a meeting of high-ranking regime officials on October 3, remarks that Secretary Bessent used as reference in his October 5th message.
Iran last month proposed a plan to reopen the strait, resume talks over its nuclear program, in return for the lifting of U.S. naval blockade, unfreezing of its assets and to be able to export its oil.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian told world leaders at the U.N General Assembly last month that that Tehran won’t yield to sanctions.