Bessent pushes Iran sanctions as G20 grapples with growth and debt

Asheville,UPDATED: Aug 31, 2026 20:28 IST

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent began meetings with finance ministers of the world’s largest economies this week as the United States faces tensions over its aggressive tariffs on major allies and its war on Iran, which is keeping petrol prices high for consumers. At the Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting, Bessent said his priority was to discuss ways to grow the global economy and tackle rising debt.

The meeting comes as hostilities between the US and Iran have resumed and trade tensions with Canada have worsened after a breakdown in negotiations led to higher tariffs. Bessent also said he would step up pressure on Iran through fresh sanctions, while seeking wider international backing for the US approach.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, Bessent said he plans to sanction another bank as part of what he called “Operation Economic Outcast”. He said the administration was prepared to use “financial violence if we have to”. Asked by reporters on Monday how long it would take for the Iranian economy to collapse, Bessent said: “I think it could be within weeks or months -- and the economy doesn’t have to collapse, we just have to have the regime come to their senses.” He said the European Union had backed his sanctions push with “fulsome support”. On Sunday, the EU said in a statement that it welcomed added economic pressure on Iran and would work with the US and other partners to maintain that pressure.

France’s finance minister, Roland Lescure, told reporters he hoped the G20 would issue a global statement on an agreed path for economic growth. He said the world economy is “a bit like the weather in Asheville -- it’s unpredictable, it’s foggy”.

Daniel Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for European affairs in George W. Bush’s Republican administration, said the US may “find it difficult to rally its usual friends and allies” in the present circumstances. He said that if Bessent and other administration officials wanted international support, they would need to “take greater care in consulting with allies and partners than the US has shown in recent months”. Bessent wants other countries to help the US isolate Iran and force its capitulation in a war that has now crossed the six-month mark. Although the US struck Iran again on Sunday, the administration has earlier signalled that it wants to rely more on economic pressure than military action.

So far, President Donald Trump has not acted on threats of an “economic D-Day” for Iran, and has instead largely relied on warnings to Iran’s trading partners. One challenge is China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil. Bessent told the AP that “all options are on the table” when it comes to sanctioning Beijing for continuing those purchases. But he rejected suggestions that the administration was unwilling to confront China, calling that “a completely false narrative”. He said the US and China agree on the need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

The G20 meetings are being held in Asheville, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. The storm killed more than 250 people and caused nearly USD 80 billion in damage from Florida to the Carolinas. Bessent said Asheville’s recovery made it a symbolic setting for talks on economic growth. “We want the rest of the world to come along with our growth agenda, whether it’s deregulation, the energy independence, and we want to discuss global imbalances, banking regulations, some sovereign debt restructuring for developing countries,” he told the AP. He added: “the world has this mountain of debt, and we do have to grow our way out of it.” In sum, the meeting has combined talks on global growth and debt with renewed US efforts to tighten economic pressure on Iran and win support from allies and partners.

With PTI Inputs

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