Bessent calls on Europe to expand sanctions and combat Iranian financiers
United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asked this Tuesday (19) that European allies intensify actions against Iran’s financiers, expanding cooperation with Washington in the fight against terrorist financing. In a speech at the “No Money for Terror” conference in Paris, government member Donald Trump stated that US partners need to act against financial networks linked to Tehran.
According to Bessent, European allies must accompany the US in adopting measures such as sanctions on Iranian financiers, closing shell companies and dismantling banking structures linked to the regime. “It will be necessary for our European partners to join the United States in taking action against Iran by naming its financiers, exposing its shell companies and closing its bank branches,” he said.
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The secretary stated that the Trump administration had resumed the “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran and declared that the country had suffered a “financial strangulation” promoted by Washington. According to him, the US Treasury has halted tens of billions of dollars in Iran’s projected oil revenues, in addition to blocking illicit financial flows and parallel banking networks.
Bessent also defended the use of sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy and national security. “Sanctions are not acts of aggression, but instruments of peace,” he stated. According to him, the measures aim to change behaviors and not impose permanent isolation on countries or populations.
The secretary added that the US Treasury is modernizing its sanctions architecture to make them more targeted and effective in the face of adapting financial evasion networks, with “defined deadlines to generate specific effects”.
When demanding greater international engagement, Bessent stated that countries in the Middle East and Asia also need to combat parallel Iranian banking networks. He further cited groups such as Hezbollah and the Mexican Sinaloa cartel among threats that require global coordination.
