Scott Bessent: Bury the Head of the Iranian Snake

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The United States Treasury Department severed what it described as critical Iranian financial lifelines in Türkiye on Friday designating Türkiye-based Golden Global Bank and its subsidiaries for facilitating tens of millions of dollars in transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and providing the Iranian regime with key correspondent banking access that allows it to move funds internationally, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent simultaneously declared on X that he will continue taking action "until we have buried the head of the Iranian snake" and revealed that no Iranian crude has successfully reached China since the US reinstated its naval blockade.

"Today, as part of Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury severed the Iranian regime's critical financial lifelines in Türkiye," the Treasury Department posted on X on Friday. "The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Türkiye-based Golden Global Bank and its subsidiaries, which have facilitated tens of millions of dollars' worth of transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and provide the Iranian regime with key correspondent banking access that allows it to move its funds internationally."

The three entities designated are Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi Anonim Sirketi, a portfolio management company, Golden Global Varlik Kiralama Anonim Sirketi, an asset leasing firm, and Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi, the investment bank that serves as the parent institution of the group. The Treasury also issued a general license allowing the wind-down of transactions with the sanctioned entities.

Bessent accompanied the announcement with one of his most direct and personal statements of the entire Operation Economic Outcast campaign, posting on X: "Financial institutions continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast. While we hope no more banks will need to be sanctioned, that ultimately depends on how quickly the international community comes to its senses and ceases support of the murderous Iranian regime. We know who you are, we know where you are, and we will continue to take action together with our allies and partners until we have buried the head of the Iranian snake."

In a separate post on X on the same day, Bessent disclosed the most operationally significant data point yet about the effectiveness of the naval blockade on Iran's oil exports. "Since the U.S. reinstated its blockade, no Iranian crude cargoes have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz to China," he wrote. "Inventory cannot be replenished as crude piles up aboard vessels trapped inside the strait. Iran's export lifeline is being cut off: stranded oil, finite storage, and rapidly shrinking revenue."

The disclosure that not a single Iranian crude cargo has reached China since the blockade was reinstated directly contradicts Iran's claims of maintaining oil export capacity and challenges the assumption that Beijing's purchases of Iranian crude have been able to continue uninterrupted. China currently purchases more than 90 percent of Iran's oil exports, making its access to Chinese markets the single most important variable in Tehran's economic survival. Bessent's confirmation that no Iranian crude has transited Hormuz to China since the blockade's reinstatement, combined with the picture of oil piling up on trapped vessels inside the strait with finite storage capacity and no route out, describes an Iranian oil export system approaching a structural breaking point.

The designation of Golden Global Bank as an institution facilitating IRGC Quds Force transactions gives the Turkish action a direct counterterrorism dimension, going beyond sanctions evasion into active support for the operational arm of Iran's proxy network. The IRGC Quds Force is designated by the United States as a terrorist organization and is the entity responsible for directing Hezbollah, Iraq's Iran-aligned militias, the Houthis in Yemen, and other Iranian proxy forces throughout the region.

The action represents a significant geographic expansion of Operation Economic Outcast's enforcement reach. The previous week, Washington moved to cut off Banque Misr UAE from US dollar transactions after Treasury assessed it had processed approximately $1.8 billion for 103 companies potentially linked to Iranian shadow banking networks. The Friday designation of Turkish financial entities extends that enforcement action from the UAE to Türkiye, a NATO member, demonstrating that Washington's sanctions campaign will not spare allied nations whose financial institutions are found to be facilitating Iranian transactions or IRGC financing.

Treasury Secretary Bessent confirmed in an interview with Reuters on Sunday, August 31, 2026, that the Treasury Department is likely to roll out new secondary sanctions every week, initially focusing on banks. Friday's Turkish designations represent the second weekly tranche of that accelerating sanctions cadence, and Bessent's "we know who you are, we know where you are" warning signals that further designations across additional jurisdictions are already being prepared.

The targeting of Turkish entities is particularly significant given Türkiye's complex position in the current regional landscape. Ankara is simultaneously a NATO ally, a founding member of the Makkah Defense Alliance alongside Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, an active regional diplomat on the Syria and Lebanon files, and a country whose financial sector has now been explicitly targeted by Washington for the second consecutive week over Iran-related dealings.