Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says "Operation Economic Outcast" has been a major success as it passes the eight-week mark. He called it the toughest effort in history to isolate a single economy, and he claimed that Iran's worries have grown sharply over time. According to Bessent, elected officials in Tehran began fretting about the economy over the summer, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is now both publicly and privately concerned and talking about a collapse. The operation was launched on August 24 as the economic partner to the U.S. military and naval pressure on Iran, targeting its financial networks and trade in sectors such as digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. The idea, as the administration describes it, is to squeeze the funding that keeps the regime and the IRGC running without the cost of a military campaign.

These are the Trump administration's own claims, and they have not been independently confirmed. Bessent has also said Iran is running short of foreign currency, that its oil production is starting to falter, and that the next eight weeks will be even more intense. Iranian officials have rejected the pressure campaign, with one lawmaker calling it an admission of defeat in the military arena. The big questions now are how much damage the sanctions are really doing inside Iran, whether countries and banks that deal with Tehran will back away, and whether the pressure pushes Iran toward a deal or toward further escalation. Bessent has said the goal is to make Iran want a deal, but there is no sign yet that Tehran is ready to give one.