ASHEVILLE, N.C. — As financial leaders of the world’s largest economies met here in the Blue Ridge Mountains this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed allies on the sidelines to support the United States’ efforts to “economically asphyxiate” Iran’s economy.
That effort has been met with a “great show of support,” Bessent said Tuesday morning, but he later declined to specify any new commitments secured during the G-20 finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville on Monday and Tuesday.
“What I can tell you is many of our allies came forward and said we will do whatever is necessary,” including providing the United States with intelligence, Bessent told reporters during a closing news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Global economic instability prompted by renewed fighting in Iran was an undercurrent of the annual meeting of finance ministers and central bankers. Energy prices around the world remain high because of disruptions from the war, and investors have sold off global bonds as inflation fears collide with high international debt.
One big question is whether China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, resists U.S. sanctions. So far, Chinese officials have said that it would take “all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.”
Bessent said repeatedly this week that the U.S. and China have more they agree on than disagree on with respect to Iran. He said they are aligned on preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and resuming free trade in the Strait of Hormuz, the channel through which more than 20 percent of the world’s liquid petroleum supply moved before the conflict.
Bessent’s conversations with Chinese officials were “productive” and intentionally “quiet,” he said, but there was no specific agreement yet with China related to the strait.
If the Chinese are not cooperative, it “potentially undermines a lot of the benefits” of the proposed sanctions regime, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, who previously handled sanctions portfolios under the Biden and Obama administrations.
“It goes back to the fundamental question,” Nephew said. “You’re talking a big game. Are you going to work with the Chinese? Are you going to impose consequences on the Chinese for failure to cooperate?”
Bessent pushed back on the idea that the U.S. plan would be unsuccessful without Chinese participation. The Chinese pay Iran in Chinese currency, he said, which will be blocked from entering the Persian Gulf region. “When that money cannot be converted to dollars, then the regime will starve,” he said.
Action from the United Arab Emirates or from other countries such as Turkey that still have economic relationships with Iran would be significant, according to Nephew and Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center.
“The success that can happen out of this happened behind closed doors and will be seen in the implementation and crackdowns in the weeks ahead,” Lipsky said.
The European Union, Britain and the United Arab Emirates have expressed support for constraining Iran economically. However, Valdis Dombrovskis, the European commissioner for economy and productivity, did not commit to “ramping up” sanctions against Iran in an interview with reporters in Asheville and said the E.U. “is already running extensive sanctions against Iran.”
Joshua Yang contributed to this report.
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