What has the US Treasury Secretary said about the Iran sanctions?: Scott Bessent is the 60th US Secretary of the Treasury, confirmed in January 2025. On 15 April 2026 he confirmed OFAC General Licence U would not be renewed and threatened secondary sanctions on Iranian oil buyers.Source: US Treasury / CNBC
Why did Bessent call an emergency meeting about Anthropic's AI model?: On 8 April 2026, Bessent and Fed Chair Powell summoned bank CEOs to Treasury to discuss Claude Mythos Preview, which scored 83.1% on a cyberattack benchmark and identified thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities. It was the first such meeting ever convened specifically over an AI model.Source: Lowdown
Did Bessent change his position on Iranian oil sanctions?: Yes. In early 2026 Bessent told CNBC the administration was deliberately allowing Iranian tankers through Hormuz to stabilise oil prices. On 15 April he reversed course, confirming GL-U would not be renewed and framing secondary sanctions as the financial equivalent of US bombing.Source: CNBC / US Treasury
What did Bessent say about Russian sanctions waivers?: Bessent described 30-day waivers on 124 million barrels of Russian crude as "narrowly tailored" and acknowledged Russian territorial gains were "an inevitability", drawing sharp criticism from Germany's Chancellor Merz.Source: Treasury Department
Did Trump use Bessent to punish Spain?: Yes. Trump ordered Bessent to cut all Treasury dealings with Spain after Madrid refused US forces base access during the Iran conflict.Source: White House
Who is Scott Bessent?: Scott Bessent is the 60th US Secretary of the Treasury, confirmed in January 2025. He previously founded Key Square Group and was Chief Investment Officer at Soros Fund Management. As Treasury Secretary, he has been the primary architect of US sanctions escalation against Iran in 2026.
What has Scott Bessent done as Treasury Secretary?: Bessent has managed a sequence of high-stakes sanctions decisions: issuing 30-day waivers on Russian crude, allowing Iranian tanker passage early in the conflict, then sharply reversing with the GL-U non-renewal in April 2026 and the GL-W sanctions package on 1 May 2026 targeting Iran's foreign exchange houses and payment channels.Source: OFAC; CNBC
Did Scott Bessent sign the OFAC Hormuz toll sanctions alert?: Yes. On 1 May 2026, OFAC under Bessent issued General Licence W, designated three Iranian foreign exchange houses and the tanker NEW FUSION, and published a sanctions alert naming the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Bonyad Mostazafan, and Iranian embassy accounts as prohibited channels for Hormuz toll payments.Source: OFAC
Is Scott Bessent driving Iran sanctions policy?: Bessent is the lead public voice on Iran sanctions, having confirmed the GL-U non-renewal on 15 April 2026 and authored the 1 May GL-W package. He described OFAC's approach as the 'financial equivalent of the US military's bombing campaign against Iran'.Source: Treasury; CNBC

Background

Scott Bessent is the 60th US Secretary of the Treasury, confirmed by the Senate in January 2025. A veteran macro investor, he spent nearly two decades at George Soros's hedge fund before founding Key Square Group in 2015. His appointment signalled that Trump's second term would treat fiscal and sanctions policy as active geopolitical instruments rather than passive regulatory tools.

Bessent has driven a sustained sequence of Iran sanctions actions since hostilities began on 28 February 2026. He told CNBC the administration was deliberately letting Iranian tankers through the Strait of Hormuz to supply global markets, predicting oil would fall 'much lower' than $80. That accommodation posture reversed on 15 April 2026, when he confirmed OFAC General Licence U would not be renewed and described secondary sanctions on Iranian oil buyers as 'the financial equivalent of the US military's bombing campaign'; markets did not reprice, and Brent fell on the announcement.

On 24 April 2026, Bessent attached explicit nuclear-programme language to the Hengli Petrochemical sanctions action, the first recorded instance of that framing in any 2026 shadow-fleet designation. On 1 May 2026, Bessent's OFAC issued General Licence W, designated three Iranian foreign exchange houses and the Panama-flagged tanker NEW FUSION, and published a sanctions alert naming IRCS, Bonyad Mostazafan, and Iranian embassy accounts as prohibited Hormuz toll payment channels. He stated OFAC would 'relentlessly target the regime's ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds'.

Bessent described 30-day sanctions waivers covering 124 million barrels of Russian crude as 'narrowly tailored' while acknowledging Russian territorial gains were 'an inevitability'. European partners including Germany's Chancellor Merz called the Russian oil waivers outright wrong. On 16 April 2026 Bessent confirmed General License 134A would not be renewed, closing a channel worth approximately $150 million per day.

Bessent authorised General License 134B on 18 April 2026, extending Russian seaborne-oil cover to Cuba through 16 May 2026 and publicly justifying it on grounds the oil was already in transit.

On 8 April 2026, Bessent co-convened an emergency meeting at Treasury headquarters with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, summoning the CEOs of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs to discuss Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview — the first recorded instance of the Fed and Treasury convening Wall Street leadership over a frontier AI model's capabilities.

On Cuba, Bessent's authoring role expanded in May 2026. On 7 May OFAC issued Cuba General License 1 as a savings clause under newly numbered Executive Order 14404, aligning the personal-designations architecture with the pre-existing Cuban Assets Control Regulations. The same day OFAC added Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera to the SDN list under the [Cuba-EO] tag — the first individual designation under EO 14404, signed under Bessent's Treasury authority. GL 134B's 16 May expiry without a Cuba-specific successor under EO 14404 illustrates the layered Treasury posture: Bessent declined to issue a successor licence even as the Sovcomflot Universal's 270,000 barrels of diesel sat 1,000-1,600 km offshore.