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The United States will shut down Iranian airlines' access to landing spots, refueling and ticket sales, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday. The move points to escalation in Washington's economic pressure campaign against Tehran as ceasefire and nuclear negotiations continue to stall.
Bessent announced the move in a post on X alongside news that the Treasury had sanctioned Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA), a body Tehran established on May 5 to collect transit fees from vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz, calling the agency "a joke."
"Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority is a joke, and today Treasury has sanctioned it," Bessent wrote.
"We have warned any corporate or state entities against paying tolls or hiding them as aid payments," he added.
Bessent described the Iranian economy as already in sharp decline, asserting the U.S.-led pressure campaign has significantly degraded Tehran's domestic operations.
"Their troops are not getting paid, the police are not reporting for work, and Kharg Island is shut down," he wrote, adding, "The Iranian economy and currency are in free fall."
He said the U.S. naval blockade produced "a record low amount of Iranian crude on the water," describing the effort as forming "a Wall of Steel."
Bessent framed further escalation as the direct consequence of failed negotiations.
"Only a satisfactory outcome in negotiations will end the downward spiral," he wrote.
The PGSA was established by the Iranian government on May 5 to manage transit requests for vessels seeking to cross the Strait of Hormuz without risk of attack or sea mines.
The U.S. has described the body as an attempt to "extort global maritime trade."
Tehran's control of the strait, once a conduit for about one-fifth of the global oil supply, has sent the world economy into turmoil. Iran effectively closed the waterway to international shipping early in the war, which began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran.
The U.S. imposed a naval blockade around the Gulf of Oman in April, vowing to intercept ships sailing toward Iranian ports in an effort to cripple Tehran's economy.
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