Shafaq News- Washington

About 30 million barrels of Iranian oil remain stranded at sea, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Monday, arguing that the stock will eventually run out even if Tehran continues receiving revenue from Chinese buyers.

In an interview with CNBC, Bessent said Washington aims to use this economic pressure to push Iran back to negotiations and can sustain sanctions pressure even without Chinese cooperation. The goal of Operation Economic Outcast was to create conditions that would make Tehran “want to come to the table.”

China remains Iran’s largest oil customer, though its purchases have fallen sharply. Reuters reported that Chinese imports of Iranian crude were provisionally estimated at about 534,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August, down from peaks of 1.58 million bpd earlier this year.

The Treasury Department launched Operation Economic Outcast on August 24 to intensify pressure on Iran’s financial and commercial networks, including through secondary sanctions on foreign entities that continue doing business with Tehran. Speaking separately to reporters at the G20 finance ministers meeting in North Carolina, Bessent said Iran was taking US sanctions seriously and that Tehran was “lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.”