Bessent Predicts Iran Economic Collapse as Currency Hits Record Low

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran’s economy will soon collapse amid a Trump administration-driven economic campaign that he said has eroded Tehran’s economic capabilities.

Predicting that Iran’s economy would collapse “probably in the next two weeks,” Bessent told Fox News on Sunday the country has few commodities to trade.

“There are only 15 million more barrels of Iranian oil on the water, then Iran will have nothing left to trade for anything,” the Treasury secretary said.

Tehran, he added, will make its “final deliveries of oil to China, and then they will have nothing” after that.

Bessent’s comments come as Iran’s rial currency has fallen to a new, record low on Tuesday morning. Traders are exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar, coming just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record of 2.2 million to the dollar.

The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February as the Iranian economy has been under duress for years in the face of international sanctions. But a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian oil and new sanctions imposed since the start of the war have sent it into freefall.

Those new sanctions were announced by Bessent in August, dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast,” and the Treasury secretary said they seek to “sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”

The aforementioned blockade was initiated after an interim memorandum of understanding that was signed by the United States and Iran fell through over the summer. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote on X over the past weekend that 122 commercial ships were redirected to force compliance with the blockade.

Iran’s economic troubles come as Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, held a news conference in Tehran on Tuesday and read from what he said was a letter to the American people. The letter was also published on Iranian state-run media outlet Tasnim News on Tuesday.

Reading from the prepared text, he said that the only way for the war to end is for Washington to admit defeat and leave. The message was apparently meant for the U.S. public just weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections for the U.S. Congress.

Mohebbi told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Americans should take to the streets to denounce what he called the U.S. government’s policies. He also said Americans should “revise their decision” about their leaders.

Trump said on Sept. 27 that he expects talks with Iran to resume this week, although he declined to rule out new strikes against the country ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump, meanwhile, said that he believes the price of oil will drop after Iran concedes defeat in the conflict, which started in February.

“Oil will come dropping down as soon as Iran gives up. As soon as the war is over, oil is going to come plummeting down, and oil prices are coming down,” Trump said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.