September 2, 2026
“In two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water that the oil will be going on pipelines across land,” Bessent said on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting.
He presented the measures as part of a broader strategy to cripple Iran's economy and deprive the country of its maritime leverage after military force failed to break the country's self-defense capabilities.
“We are going to economically asphyxiate this regime,” Bessent stated, reiterating the US Treasury's aim to target private individuals and entities linked to Iran.
He said that the Treasury was hunting the assets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and would move to freeze property held abroad.
Bessent tied the financial campaign directly to the military assault on Iran as part of a dual-strategy of military assault and financial strangulation.
The Treasury Secretary claimed that the US military had destroyed Iran's navy and air force, wiped out a large share of its missile and drone stocks, and knocked out between 85 and 90 percent of the factories capable of rebuilding them.
Despite US hopes of stripping Iran of its maritime leverage through land-based pipelines, analysts note that no combination of existing or proposed routes can effectively replace the Strait of Hormuz.
The vital waterway carried around 20 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2024, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates spare pipeline capacity to bypass it at just 3.5 to 5.5 million bpd.
That capacity sits almost entirely in Saudi and Emirati lines, leaving Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, and most Iraqi exports with no route out.
The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) has declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and struck Saudi tankers, leaving Yanbu and the Red Sea route as exposed to attack as the strait they were meant to bypass, while Iranian missiles and drones remain within range of Saudi and Emirati territory.
Despite repeated US claims that Iran's military had been decimated, Israeli defense officials told the Jerusalem Post in early August that they had been stunned by the speed of Iran's recovery.
After Israeli strikes in October 2024, Iran restored full missile production within months, and its arsenal grew from 1,300 missiles at the time of the June 2025 war to 2,500 by February 2026.
Israeli officials now acknowledge that Iran is again producing missiles far faster than expected, months after they declared its military industry shattered.
In several statements, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian Armed Forces announced that retaliatory operations included missile and drone strikes on US bases in Jordan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE.
The IRGC said ballistic missiles struck hangars housing RQ-4 and MQ-9 long-range drones at Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan, destroying several drones, setting technical infrastructure ablaze, and killing a number of pilots and technical flight personnel.
It also said a combined missile and drone attack on US bases in Erbil destroyed a maintenance facility, technical-equipment warehouses, and the guidance system for a US surveillance balloon, while setting fuel tanks ablaze and killing a number of US personnel.
Another combined missile and drone strike targeted the headquarters and residence of the US commander at Kuwait’s Ali al-Salem Air Base, killing a number of personnel, before striking and setting fire to a drone hangar and drone deployment ramp and destroying several drones.
“No information has yet been released regarding the fate of the commander of the US base at Ali al-Salem,” wrote Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Separately, the Iranian Armed Forces said dozens of attack drones targeted radar systems and US troop positions at Al-Dhafra and Al-Minhad bases in the UAE, while Arash attack drones again carried out heavy strikes on radar facilities and concentrations of US forces at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.
Direct hits on multiple bases in Jordan were reported. Footage on social media showed ballistic missile impacts on US infrastructure.
The operations are a response to late-night strikes on the Islamic Republic, carried out by Washington.
One of the strikes hit a wedding ceremony in Sirik, killing and wounding over 50.
“The US catalogue of atrocities against the nation of Iran is now complete: a residential home in Kuhestak, Sirik, was brutally attacked tonight while families were celebrating a wedding,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Wednesday.
“This cruelty cannot be separated from the chain of atrocities that preceded it in Minab, Lamerd, Qeshm and elsewhere nor from the strikes on military targets that were dressed in deceptive justifications,” he added.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed it “successfully” struck Iranian “military targets” including “air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites.”
Late on Sunday, Washington struck Iran’s Larak Island in a major escalation. It was the first US attack in weeks.
Tehran responded with attacks on US bases in the UAE and Jordan.
A report by Axios on Monday, citing three US officials, said that “Trump and his senior aides have been considering waging limited strikes in the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from reconstituting its radar and missile capabilities to attack ships.”
Tehran has already largely rebuilt its military capabilities, multiple reports have confirmed in recent months.
Over 68 percent of 1,000 respondents said that Trump had managed the war on Iran badly, while only 25 percent said he was handling the war somewhat or very well.
Overall disapproval reached 64 percent, with 54 percent strongly disapproving of Trump's overall performance as president, with approval having slipped one point from a March survey by the same university.
Inflation caused by the US wars and the subsequent cascading effects on the US economy dragged on his standing as well, with more than half saying he was handling it not well at all against 22 percent who said somewhat or very well.
Among the 262 Trump voters surveyed, 16 percent said that with hindsight they would have backed a different candidate or not shown up to vote at all.
UMass poll co-director Alexander Theodoridis said the shift fell short of a mass exodus but could have proven decisive in a close election, pointing to “clear, consistent signs of an erosion trend.”
The war on Iran has entered its seventh month after Trump predicted it would last roughly one month, and he has repeatedly promised since then that it would soon be over.
Long-term US borrowing costs have climbed to a two-decade high as investors pull away from US Treasuries, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz pushing Brent crude above $92 a barrel, driving up fuel prices for US consumers and feeding the inflation fears that weigh most heavily on long-dated debt.
This comes as Trump's military establishment shows growing inner turmoil, with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigning on 31 August after months of clashing with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the third senior army figure to resign or be dismissed since April.
Meanwhile, Iran has largely rebuilt its military capabilities, is keeping the Strait of Hormuz shut to Washington, and struck US bases in the UAE and Jordan in response to the attack on Larak Island.
Bessent says overland pipelines
will carry the region's oil within two years, even as the existing routes have
room for at most a quarter of what the strait moves
US Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent said on 1 September that the Strait of Hormuz will become a “worthless
piece of water,” bypassed entirely by overland oil pipelines, as part of a
broader effort to “asphyxiate” Iran's economy.
“In two years, the Strait of Hormuz will be like a worthless piece of water that the oil will be going on pipelines across land,” Bessent said on the sidelines of the G20 finance ministers’ meeting.
He presented the measures as part of a broader strategy to cripple Iran's economy and deprive the country of its maritime leverage after military force failed to break the country's self-defense capabilities.
“We are going to economically asphyxiate this regime,” Bessent stated, reiterating the US Treasury's aim to target private individuals and entities linked to Iran.
He said that the Treasury was hunting the assets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and would move to freeze property held abroad.
Bessent tied the financial campaign directly to the military assault on Iran as part of a dual-strategy of military assault and financial strangulation.
The Treasury Secretary claimed that the US military had destroyed Iran's navy and air force, wiped out a large share of its missile and drone stocks, and knocked out between 85 and 90 percent of the factories capable of rebuilding them.
Despite US hopes of stripping Iran of its maritime leverage through land-based pipelines, analysts note that no combination of existing or proposed routes can effectively replace the Strait of Hormuz.
The vital waterway carried around 20 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2024, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates spare pipeline capacity to bypass it at just 3.5 to 5.5 million bpd.
That capacity sits almost entirely in Saudi and Emirati lines, leaving Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, and most Iraqi exports with no route out.
The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) has declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and struck Saudi tankers, leaving Yanbu and the Red Sea route as exposed to attack as the strait they were meant to bypass, while Iranian missiles and drones remain within range of Saudi and Emirati territory.
Despite repeated US claims that Iran's military had been decimated, Israeli defense officials told the Jerusalem Post in early August that they had been stunned by the speed of Iran's recovery.
After Israeli strikes in October 2024, Iran restored full missile production within months, and its arsenal grew from 1,300 missiles at the time of the June 2025 war to 2,500 by February 2026.
Israeli officials now acknowledge that Iran is again producing missiles far faster than expected, months after they declared its military industry shattered.
The new round of IRGC and Iranian
military operations follows a series of brutal US strikes on Iran, one of which
hit a wedding ceremony in Sirik
Iranian forces carried out
large-scale retaliatory operations across the region late on 1 September and
into the early hours of 2 September, in response to a violent new wave of US
airstrikes that killed and injured dozens of Iranians.In several statements, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian Armed Forces announced that retaliatory operations included missile and drone strikes on US bases in Jordan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE.
The IRGC said ballistic missiles struck hangars housing RQ-4 and MQ-9 long-range drones at Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan, destroying several drones, setting technical infrastructure ablaze, and killing a number of pilots and technical flight personnel.
It also said a combined missile and drone attack on US bases in Erbil destroyed a maintenance facility, technical-equipment warehouses, and the guidance system for a US surveillance balloon, while setting fuel tanks ablaze and killing a number of US personnel.
Another combined missile and drone strike targeted the headquarters and residence of the US commander at Kuwait’s Ali al-Salem Air Base, killing a number of personnel, before striking and setting fire to a drone hangar and drone deployment ramp and destroying several drones.
“No information has yet been released regarding the fate of the commander of the US base at Ali al-Salem,” wrote Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Separately, the Iranian Armed Forces said dozens of attack drones targeted radar systems and US troop positions at Al-Dhafra and Al-Minhad bases in the UAE, while Arash attack drones again carried out heavy strikes on radar facilities and concentrations of US forces at Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain.
Direct hits on multiple bases in Jordan were reported. Footage on social media showed ballistic missile impacts on US infrastructure.
The operations are a response to late-night strikes on the Islamic Republic, carried out by Washington.
One of the strikes hit a wedding ceremony in Sirik, killing and wounding over 50.
“The US catalogue of atrocities against the nation of Iran is now complete: a residential home in Kuhestak, Sirik, was brutally attacked tonight while families were celebrating a wedding,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Wednesday.
“This cruelty cannot be separated from the chain of atrocities that preceded it in Minab, Lamerd, Qeshm and elsewhere nor from the strikes on military targets that were dressed in deceptive justifications,” he added.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) claimed it “successfully” struck Iranian “military targets” including “air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine laying capabilities, and communications sites.”
Late on Sunday, Washington struck Iran’s Larak Island in a major escalation. It was the first US attack in weeks.
Tehran responded with attacks on US bases in the UAE and Jordan.
A report by Axios on Monday, citing three US officials, said that “Trump and his senior aides have been considering waging limited strikes in the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from reconstituting its radar and missile capabilities to attack ships.”
Tehran has already largely rebuilt its military capabilities, multiple reports have confirmed in recent months.
Sixteen percent of Trump’s 2024
voters say they would have backed someone else or not voted at all
US President Donald Trump's
approval rating has dropped to a record low of 32 percent due to the war on
Iran and its economic fallout, a University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst
national survey revealed on 1 September.Over 68 percent of 1,000 respondents said that Trump had managed the war on Iran badly, while only 25 percent said he was handling the war somewhat or very well.
Overall disapproval reached 64 percent, with 54 percent strongly disapproving of Trump's overall performance as president, with approval having slipped one point from a March survey by the same university.
Inflation caused by the US wars and the subsequent cascading effects on the US economy dragged on his standing as well, with more than half saying he was handling it not well at all against 22 percent who said somewhat or very well.
Among the 262 Trump voters surveyed, 16 percent said that with hindsight they would have backed a different candidate or not shown up to vote at all.
UMass poll co-director Alexander Theodoridis said the shift fell short of a mass exodus but could have proven decisive in a close election, pointing to “clear, consistent signs of an erosion trend.”
The war on Iran has entered its seventh month after Trump predicted it would last roughly one month, and he has repeatedly promised since then that it would soon be over.
Long-term US borrowing costs have climbed to a two-decade high as investors pull away from US Treasuries, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz pushing Brent crude above $92 a barrel, driving up fuel prices for US consumers and feeding the inflation fears that weigh most heavily on long-dated debt.
This comes as Trump's military establishment shows growing inner turmoil, with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigning on 31 August after months of clashing with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the third senior army figure to resign or be dismissed since April.
Meanwhile, Iran has largely rebuilt its military capabilities, is keeping the Strait of Hormuz shut to Washington, and struck US bases in the UAE and Jordan in response to the attack on Larak Island.
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