Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a press briefing at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting that he expects U.S. pressure on Iran to reach a breaking point where the regime will “turn on each other, the people are going to turn on them, or they are going to come to the table.” “It’s an overused line, but it’s going to be like Ernest Hemingway said: ‘How did you go bankrupt? Slowly, then quickly.’ Well, I think we’re in the acceleration phase,” he said.

WASHINGTON POST REPORTER: Hi, Secretary Bessent. I wondered if you could expand on the agreement between China and the U.S. on the Strait of Hormuz. Has China made any specific commitments this week to help with the blockade or efforts to reopen? SCOTT BESSENT: No, I didn’t say that there was a specific agreement. I said we agreed that the strait must be open. EDWARD LAWRENCE, FOX BUSINESS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. With the economic pressure on Iran, as well as the kinetic strikes we’re seeing, do you believe that we are closer to the end, or are we in the middle of this conflict? SCOTT BESSENT: Look, Iran does not have control of the strait, and they are in a death spiral. We have control of the strait. The limited kinetic strikes that we did yesterday were to take out radar, some patchwork of Tinkertoy, Erector Set radar that they were trying to reconstruct along the banks of the strait. I can’t remember what the number is. I just saw it, but I think we got out about 17 million barrels of crude yesterday. That is not Iranian control of the strait. And I will tell you that one of the best allies that the Iranians have on this is the media, because the media immediately publishes all the lies, all the lies that they say. There are no mines in the strait. Two ships did not hit mines. This is Iranian disinformation, and everyone in this audience and every news outlet should be ashamed for publishing that, taking a lying regime at face value. Well, I think, look, they are panicked. They are resorting to kinetic because they are getting squeezed economically. Could you imagine that the country with the third-most energy resources in the world now has four-hour gas lines that go all night, all night, because they have done such a terrible job of managing their economy? And at a point, either the IRGC are going to turn on each other, the people are going to turn on them, or they are going to come to the table and want to do a deal that they can stick with. President Trump has said for the past few weeks the reason the MOU failed was they were not ready for a deal. So we will see when they are ready for a deal. But, you know, as their bank accounts, their personal bank accounts, disappear around the world, as we squeeze this regime, as their soldiers look at them when they’re not getting paid, we have seen the president of Iran, the speaker of the parliament of Iran, and the central bank governor all say last weekend – we didn’t see it reported anywhere – that there are problems in the economy and everybody should be ready for it. The supreme leader prepared everyone for that. So it’s just going to be a matter of time. And again, it’s an overused line, but it’s going to be like Ernest Hemingway said: How did you go bankrupt? Slowly, then quickly. Well, I think we’re in the acceleration phase. You can see the currency. The currency that 16 months ago was at 800,000 to the dollar, now it’s 2.1 million. And that just means that they have no access to dollars and they are in the death throes. And will they lash out more kinetically? Maybe. But they will be ready for a deal.

Here is Bessent’s full Tuesday press conference:
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