Meiad Maleki, the former head of the sanctions targeting office at the U.S. Treasury Department, in reference to Scott Bessent’s remarks that the complete financial isolation of the Islamic Republic could reduce the need for extensive military operations, said that economic pressure has now become the most significant threat to the Islamic Republic and that the government’s main concern is the domestic consequences of these pressures.

He added that the threat posed by regional countries to the Islamic Republic creates a contradiction, because in conditions of a naval blockade, countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are among the few remaining economic arteries for Tehran, and attacking them could also take those routes out of the Islamic Republic’s reach.