Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did not mince words at the G20 this week. Iran’s regime, he said, is already finished, it simply has not accepted it yet.

Drawing on an image from his South Carolina childhood, Bessent compared Tehran to a poisonous snake after its head has been cut off, still capable of thrashing and biting for a time, but no longer able to really survive. That, he said, is the purpose of Operation Economic Outcast. Not necessarily to trigger an immediate economic collapse, but to cut off the financial lifelines sustaining the regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps until the remaining danger finally burns out. 

"Larry, I was thinking about it over the weekend, and Iran reminds me of, when I was a kid in South Carolina. We lived near a swamp and as a result, we'd end up with a lot of poison snakes in our yard. And you would take either a rake, or a machete, or a paddle from a boat, and you'd cut the head off. But the snake, the tail kept wiggling. And you had to bury the head of the snake, because the head of the snake was still poisonous, and there was venom there," Bessent said. "So we are burying the head of the Iranian snake. The snake doesn't know it's dead yet, but it will stop wiggling when the sun goes down. And so the Iranian regime, they are demised, and they will figure it out."

That message comes as Bessent leads Operation Economic Outcast, a Treasury-led campaign intended to sever the Iranian regime’s remaining economic lifelines through sanctions on its oil trade, banking channels, and foreign partners. The administration has made clear that it is willing to pressure even friendly countries and institutions that keep Tehran’s financial networks alive. 

Bessent argued that the military and economic campaigns work in tandem: U.S. strikes have weakened the regime’s ability to threaten the region, while Operation Economic Outcast is meant to deny Tehran the money, trade, and financial access it would need to rebuild. In the secretary’s metaphor, military action cut off the head of the snake and now the sanctions campaign is helping the sun set, ensuring the regime cannot keep moving indefinitely.

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This comes as the United States launched a fresh round of strikes against Iran on Tuesday afternoon, after Iranian forces fired on commercial vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night.