Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has issued a direct appeal to G7 nations, urging them to align with the United States in a concerted effort to dismantle the financial infrastructure supporting Iranian activities. Speaking at the ‘No Money for Terror’ conference in Paris, Bessent emphasized that the global community must move beyond passive observation and actively participate in rooting out the funding streams that sustain regional instability.

Central to this strategy is a shift toward what the Treasury describes as ‘Operation Economic Fury.’ This modernized approach to sanctions aims to replace broad, stagnant measures with aggressive, highly targeted actions that carry defined timelines. By refining the criteria for financial designations, the U.S. intends to assist international financial institutions in identifying and neutralizing sophisticated evasion tactics, including the use of shadow banking networks, shell companies, and illicit cryptocurrency flows.

Bessent highlighted that the U.S. has already made significant strides in curbing Tehran’s revenue, particularly by disrupting oil exports and targeting the financial foundations of the regime’s nuclear and proxy-military programs. However, he argued that the efficacy of these measures is limited without broader international cooperation. He specifically called on European partners to take concrete steps, such as shuttering bank branches tied to illicit actors and designating key financiers.

This push for a unified front follows a series of signals from the current administration indicating a desire to escalate economic pressure on Iran. By framing the initiative as a collective necessity to protect the global economy and national security, the U.S. is signaling that it expects its allies to move in lockstep to isolate the regime’s financial reach and eliminate its capacity to project power through terror.