Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration was “jiu-jitsuing the Iranians” by “using their own oil against them.”
Partial transcript as follows:
KRISTEN WELKER: Let me talk about your announcement this past week. On Friday, the Treasury Department lifted sanctions on Iranian oil stored on tankers, a move that would effectively allow Iran to get more than $14 billion of oil revenue.Why is the U.S. helping to fund a country that it’s currently at war with, Mr. Secretary?
BESSENT: Again, Kristen, why don’t we have good facts here? That Iranian oil was always going to be sold to the Chinese. It was going to be sold at a discount. So, which, which is better, Kristen? Which is better? If oil prices spike to $150 and they were getting 70% of that? Or oil prices below $100? It’s better to have them where they are now. And to be clear, we had always planned for this contingency. About 140 million barrels are out on the water. In essence, we are Jiu-Jitsuing the Iranians. We are using their own oil against them. We have a much better line of sight, to be clear, at Treasury, when this oil goes to — if it goes to Indonesia, if it goes to Japan, if it goes to Korea, we have a much better line of sight and are able to block accounts that the oil goes into. When it goes into China it completely gets recycled. So, to be clear, that 14 billion number is grossly overstated.
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