{"id":1036582,"date":"2026-09-01T08:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T08:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036582\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T08:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T08:34:24","slug":"bessent-huddles-with-the-g20-to-rally-allies-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036582\/","title":{"rendered":"Bessent huddles with the G20 to rally allies on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is meeting with finance ministers of the world\u2019s largest economies this week at a time when the United States has disrupted the international order with aggressive tariffs on major allies<\/a> and an unpopular war on Iran<\/a> that is keeping gas prices high for consumers. <\/p>\n

As Bessent opened meetings of the Group of 20<\/a> finance ministers in Asheville on Monday, he said he wants to focus on ways to grow the global economy and rein in mounting debt. But the event comes after hostilities renewed between the U.S. and Iran<\/a>, and as trade friction with Canada<\/a> spiked following a breakdown in negotiations that led to escalating tariffs. <\/p>\n

Bessent told The Associated Press in an interview on Sunday<\/a> that he plans to turn up pressure on Iran by sanctioning another bank, part of what he is calling \u201cOperation Economic Outcast.\u201d The administration earlier this month<\/a> took steps to limit an Egyptian bank\u2019s operations in the United Arab Emirates. He said the administration is prepared to exact \u201cfinancial violence if we have to.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked by reporters Monday how long it would take for the Iranian economy to collapse, Bessent said: \u201cI think it could be within weeks or months — and the economy doesn\u2019t have to collapse, we just have to have the regime come to their senses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent said the European Union had backed his sanctions efforts with \u201cfulsome support.\u201d On Sunday, the EU said in a statement it welcomes added economic pressure on Iran and will work with the U.S. and other partners to keep the squeeze on Iran.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s finance minister, Roland Lescure, told reporters he hopes there will be a global statement from the G20 on an agreed-upon path for economic growth worldwide.<\/p>\n

He said the world economy is \u201ca bit like the weather in Asheville — it\u2019s unpredictable, it\u2019s foggy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s finance minister is at the meeting too<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s finance ministry said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov met with Bessent on Monday on the sidelines of the meeting.<\/p>\n

Asked why the Russian official had been invited to the meeting despite invading Ukraine<\/a> more than four years ago, President Donald Trump said, \u201cWe like getting along with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bessent told Siluanov that the U.S. would not give Russia economic relief until it ends the war, a source familiar with the meeting said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record to journalists. Siluanov tried to discuss areas of interest, but Bessent \u201cforcefully interrupted\u201d to say that no actions were possible until the war ended, the source said.<\/p>\n

Under the circumstances, it might be hard to marshal allies<\/p>\n

Daniel Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for European affairs in George W. Bush\u2019s Republican administration, said the U.S. may \u201cfind it difficult to rally its usual friends and allies\u201d under the circumstances.<\/p>\n

If Bessent and other administration officials want international support, he said, they will need to \u201ctake greater care in consulting with allies and partners than the U.S. has shown in recent months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent wants other countries to help the U.S. isolate Iran<\/a> in order to force its capitulation during a war that recently crossed its six-month mark. Although the U.S. struck Iran again on Sunday, the administration has previously signaled its intention to focus on economic pressure rather than military action to achieve its goals. <\/p>\n

So far, Trump<\/a> has not followed through on threats of an \u201ceconomic D-Day\u201d for Iran, instead largely relying on warnings to Iran\u2019s trading partners. A particular challenge is China, which is the largest buyer of Iranian oil.<\/p>\n

Bessent told the AP that \u201call options are on the table\u201d in terms of sanctioning Beijing for its continued purchases.<\/p>\n

Sanctioning China for Iranian oil purchases would come with consequences<\/p>\n

Nicholas Mulder, a Cornell historian who specializes in sanctions, said \u201cwe might see a gradual trickle of smaller listings but a large designation of, say, a major Chinese bank would cause serious upheaval and prompt retaliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bessent rejected the idea that the administration is reluctant to confront China, calling it \u201ca completely false narrative.\u201d He insisted that China and the U.S. agree on the need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n

Mulder also cautioned that any disruption to global oil flows through secondary sanctions would boost inflation and force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that Bessent\u2019s Treasury already finds itself having to quell a growing unease in the bond markets<\/a>, it will be very challenging to do the same in the sanctions enforcement space with credibility,\u201d Mulder said. <\/p>\n

The G20 meetings are taking place in Asheville, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. The natural disaster killed more than 250 people and caused nearly $80 billion in damage from Florida to the Carolinas. <\/p>\n

Bessent said Asheville \u2014 which rebuilt after the storm \u2014 was a symbolic backdrop for discussions about economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the rest of the world to come along with our growth agenda, whether it\u2019s deregulation, the energy independence, and we want to discuss global imbalances, banking regulations, some sovereign debt restructuring for developing countries,\u201d Bessent told the AP.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cthe world has this mountain of debt, and we do have to grow our way out of it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is meeting with finance ministers of the world\u2019s largest economies…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1036583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[102348,3881,37646,64,13212,414765,69,2239,12042,79,8697,455,60,186762,57,3755,86,83,6087,521,50,414764,519,80,187353,3658,3657,16816,18244,67,132,68,93,107],"class_list":["post-1036582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-anton-siluanov","tag-ap-top-news","tag-asheville","tag-business","tag-china-government","tag-daniel-fried","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-indicators","tag-economic-policy","tag-economy","tag-european-union","tag-federal-reserve-system","tag-financial-services","tag-g20-summit","tag-general-news","tag-george-w-bush","tag-government-policy","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-nc-state-wire","tag-news","tag-nicholas-mulder","tag-north-carolina","tag-politics","tag-roland-lescure","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","tag-scott-bessent","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}