In a stunning admission Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that Treasury Department actions deliberately triggered a dollar shortage in Iran, fueling a currency collapse that led to soaring inflation and mass antigovernment protests. As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone, two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME—indicating a dramatic surge in the death toll.
Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) asked Secretary Bessent about the role Treasury can continue to play in exerting pressure against the Iranian regime.
Secretary Bessent responded, “Well, what we can do at Treasury and what we have do is have done is created a dollar shortage in the country [Iran] ... It came to a swift, and I would say grand, culmination in December when one of the largest banks in Iran went under … The Iranian currency went into freefall. Inflation exploded, and hence we have seen the Iranian people out on the street. We will continue monitoring … all the Iranian partners … We have seen the Iranian leadership wiring money out of the country like crazy. So the rats are leaving the ship, and that is a good sign that they know the end may be near.”
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