Bessent: Sanctions pressure on Iran can work without Chinese help
Bessent insisted to CNBC that the U.S. plan to choke Iran’s economy by slapping sanctions on its financial “enablers,” can work even if China, Tehran’s top trade partner and oil buyer, doesn’t play ball.
“I would push back on that false narrative that somehow the media has jumped on this, ‘Oh, you can’t do it without China,'” he told CNBC’s Sara Eisen.
“Well, you can,” he said, “because one of the things is there’s only the 30 million of Iranian barrels of Iranian oil left on the water because of the blockade. So even if they were to get remittances from China, that’s going to run out.”
China has publicly said it opposes “illicit unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law.” Bessent suggested to CNBC that Beijing may be less resistant behind the scenes.
“We have more in common with the Chinese on Iran than we disagree on,” he added. “The Chinese agree that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The Chinese agree that the Strait must be open to free and fair ship transit.”
Bessent also said he met with Chinese central bank Governor Pan Gongsheng on Sunday, but offered few details about their conversation.
— Kevin Breuninger
Bessent to push global counterparts on Iran
Bessent is expected to ask his counterparts in virtually every G20 meeting if their countries will join the U.S. in its goal of cutting off Iran from the global economy, Treasury officials have said.
In an interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen Monday morning, Bessent said he spoke with Chinese central bank Governor Pan Gongsheng on Sunday, and confirmed that he will be meeting with his Canadian counterpart in Asheville.
Bessent previously told the Associated Press that he would speak to his Chinese counterparts at the meeting, and that “all options are on the table” to respond to Beijing’s continued purchases of Iranian oil.
He also told the AP that the Trump administration plans to unveil sanctions on another bank this week as part of its plan to economically isolate Iran by targeting its financial “enablers.”
Bessent is also likely to sit down with officials from South Korea and Argentina, among other nations.
—Kevin Breuninger and Megan Cassella
Fed Chairman Warsh touts ‘global investment surge’
(L-R) US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent and US Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh are seen on a TV screen as they speak during the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, on August 31, 2026.
Allison Joyce | Afp | Getty Images
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh expressed confidence in the U.S. economy during brief remarks Monday morning at the G20 conference.
“As I show up today, 100 days into my tenure, a comment that I made in Jackson Hole a day or two ago is that secular stagnation seems like a description of a past long ago. The new period is one of secular growth,” Warsh said, referring to his Friday presentation at the Fed’s annual symposium in Wyoming.
The central bank leader added that the current climate is “one of a global investment surge,” echoing a theme he has sounded repeatedly over the past several months of artificial intelligence spurring cash flows towards business growth.
— Jeff Cox
Bessent: Only way past debt mess ‘is to grow our way out’
An electronic display shows the national debt in Washington, Aug. 19, 2026.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent touted U.S. economic strength, insisting it’s possible to grow out of the escalating debt burden the nation faces.
“Our goal here today is to reiterate that our message of growth. The world is awash in debt post [global financial crisis], post Covid, and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this,” Bessent told reporters on the opening day of the G20 summit. “I’m confident that a lot of the leaders are very receptive to this.”
The government faces a $40 trillion-debt load and the likelihood of a $2 trillion deficit for fiscal 2026.
Conscious of those challenges, Bessent said “we are left with a mess” from the Biden administration.
“I say sometimes that I feel like an emergency room doctor, and the economy is the patient, and the American people were backed over by the Biden Mack truck,” he said. “We have stabilized the patient, and now we’re in the healing portion, and real incomes are increasing.”
— Jeff Cox
Bessent: Iran’s economy could collapse ‘within weeks or months’
A woman walks past a wall mural of Iran’s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along a street in downtown of Tehran on August 31, 2026.
Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Images
Iran’s economy could collapse in as soon as a few weeks, Bessent predicted, while insisting that isn’t a prerequisite for a breakthrough with Tehran.
“We have the blockade, and we are going to continue exerting pressure, and we’ve had very good discussions here already,” Bessent said at a press gaggle when asked how long it could take for Iran’s economy to buckle.
“I think it could be within weeks or months,” he said, but added, “The economy doesn’t have to collapse … we just have to have the regime come to their senses.”
— Kevin Breuninger
Bessent thanks EU for supporting ‘Operation Economic Outcast,’ the new anti-Iran sanctions plan
31 August 2026, United States, Asheville: Conference participants are seated during the first working session at the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 countries.
Bernd von Jutrczenka | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Bessent thanked the European Union “for their very fulsome, fulsome support for Operation Economic Outcast” as he arrived at the G20 meeting.
“They made it known today in the strongest terms that they supported” the plan, which aims to strangle Iran’s economy by targeting its international “enablers” with secondary sanctions, Bessent said.
The European Commission said in a statement overnight that it “welcomes efforts at ensuring that Iran ceases its destabilising activities and engages in peace negotiations with good faith.”
The commission said it supports efforts to achieve that goal “through additional economic pressure, including through the US led Operation Economic Outcast.”
“The EU will continue to work closely with the United States and other G7 and international partners to maintain pressure on Iran and contribute to de-escalation and regional stability,” the statement said.
—Kevin Breuninger
Bessent: Iran is taking sanctions ‘very seriously’
31 August 2026, United States, Asheville: Scott Bessent (M), U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, opens the first working session at the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 countries.
Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Iran is taking the threat of strengthened U.S. sanctions “very seriously,” Bessent said.
Recent rhetorical and military aggression from Iran’s leaders shows “they’re in shock at the state of their economy,” the Treasury secretary told reporters before heading into G20 meetings.
“I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically,” he said.
—Kevin Breuninger
Some reporters were barred from the Asheville meetings
31 August 2026, United States, Asheville: Scott Bessent, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, speaks ahead of the start of the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 nations.
Bernd von Jutrczenka | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
The Treasury Department blocked some reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg from attending the meetings in Asheville, barring access from three of the nation’s largest and most influential newsrooms.
Treasury’s refusal to give the reporters credentials is the latest instance of the Trump administration interfering with press access. Last year, the Pentagon imposed a strict new press policy that saw nearly all news organizations leave the building rather than sign an agreement to abide by the policy seeking to limit what news organizations could publish. Some of the news organizations excluded from the G20 said the move is intended to evade public scrutiny.
Nearly 300 members of the media, including one Times reporter, will have high-level access to policymakers throughout the event, a Treasury spokesperson said in a statement.
“News coverage should be focused on informing and educating the American people, rather than prioritizing clicks, engagement, or sensationalism,” the spokesperson said.
—Garrett Downs
Warsh on hand at G20 following Jackson Hole speech
Kevin Warsh, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, left, Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, center, and Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in Moran, Wyoming, on Aug. 28, 2026.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will be appearing in Asheville, fresh off this speech last week at the central bank’s Jackson Hole, Wyo., symposium.
The Fed leader is expected to deliver welcoming remarks for several sessions, with no indication that he will comment on policy.
During last week’s speech, Warsh hinted higher interest rates could be necessary absent further progress on getting inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target.
—Jeff Cox