"Zero Tolerance": Tracing the Assets and Funds of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Washington – Agencies: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined three potential paths for Iran amid escalating military and economic pressure on the regime, suggesting that developments could lead to a split within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), popular unrest against the government, or Tehran’s return to negotiations with Washington. Speaking yesterday on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty finance ministers’ meetings in Asheville, North Carolina, Bessent said the administration of President Donald Trump is committed to tightening economic pressure on Iran, emphasizing that sanctions will directly target financing networks linked to the IRGC. The Treasury Secretary revealed that the United States will continue to pursue Iranian funds and assets associated with the IRGC abroad, noting that Washington has identified accounts and assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars and intends to take steps to freeze them. The U.S. threat is not limited to Iranian assets; Bessent stated that the Trump administration is adopting a “zero tolerance” policy toward institutions and companies dealing with the IRGC, vowing to maintain pressure aimed at “suffocating the regime economically.” In the context of this escalation, Bessent announced that Washington is preparing to impose sanctions on a new bank later this week, with measures to continue at a near-weekly pace, and the possibility of expanding the targeting scope to include aircraft leasing companies and other institutions and entities linked to the IRGC. These remarks follow the launch by the U.S. Treasury Department on August 24 of an economic campaign dubbed the “Economic Outcast Operation,” which aims to dismantle the trade and financing networks Iran uses to circumvent U.S. sanctions and provide resources to the IRGC.