Bessent urges G7 to help U.S. attack Iran’s finances

by Kevin Breuninger

Key Points

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday urged world leaders at a G7 conference to help the U.S. combat Iranian terrorism by “rooting out the financing that sustains it.”

• Bessent, in a speech to the “No Money for Terror” conference in Paris, laid out a new rubric for imposing “aggressive and targeted” sanctions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday urged world leaders at a G7 conference to help the U.S. combat Iranian terrorism by “rooting out the financing that sustains it.”

Bessent, in a speech to the “No Money for Terror” conference in Paris, laid out a new rubric for imposing “aggressive and targeted” sanctions.

“As the United States targets the financial networks that enemy actors use to perpetrate terror, we trust that your participation here today reflects a readiness to stand with us in full measure,” Bessent said.

“That will require, for example, our European partners to join the United States in taking action against Iran by designating its financiers, unmasking its shell and front companies, shuttering its bank branches, and dismantling its proxies,” he said.

“In short, if you share our fury about Iran’s destabilizing agenda, terrorists seeking to hold the global economy hostage, drug cartels poisoning our communities, and threats to innocent lives, then now is the time to join the United States in moving aggressively.”