US may ‘escalate to de-escalate’ against Iran: Treasury chief

AFP | Washington

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The United States may need to “escalate” its attacks against Iran to be able to wind down the war, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday, after President Donald Trump gave seemingly contradictory trajectories for the US military campaign.

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if Trump was winding down or escalating the war, Bessent said: “They’re not mutually exclusive. Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate.”

“This is the only language the Iranians understand,” he argued.

Bessent, as part of efforts to abate market turmoil, has temporarily lifted US sanctions on Iranian and Russian oil that had already been loaded onto ships. But the move has produced some backlash, with critics saying it will provide funding to Iran at the same time that the US-Israeli conflict is ongoing. Asked on NBC about the contradiction, Bessent defended the move as helping alleviate pressure on US partners and lower the price Iran can receive for its oil.

“That Iranian oil was always going to be sold to the Chinese. It was going to be sold at a discount... So which is better? If oil prices spiked to $150 and they (Iran) were getting 70 percent of that, or oil prices below 100?”

Bessent on Sunday refused to put a timeline on when Americans should expect prices to moderate, while arguing that the electorate will agree that removing Iran’s nuclear threat will be worth the temporary costs.

“I don’t know whether it’s going to be 30 days. I don’t know whether it’s going to be 50 days. I don’t know whether it’s going to be 100 days,” he said.

“But to have 50 years of peace in the Middle East and know that the Iranian regime is defanged,” will be worth it.