US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made the Trump administration's sanctions policy clear in March 2025, when he spoke to the New York Economic Club and said the goal is "Making Iran Broke Again".
"Watch this space," he added. "If economic security is national security, the regime in Tehran will have neither."
That blunt assessment goes beyond most of the stated goals of US President Donald Trump himself, both throughout his first presidency up until recent days, as well as those of his successor and predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
"The objective was to put significant pressure on the regime so it made nuclear concessions," Richard Nephew, who was the principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy at the US State Department between 2013-2015, and later became the deputy special envoy for Iran, told Middle East Eye.
"You can make the argument they also wanted to get regional proxy concessions. They also wanted to get missile concessions," he said.
