The David Lin Report · Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that Iran is taking sanctions 'very seriously,' noting the leadership's acknowledgment of their economic distress and severe gasoline shortages leading to long queues. Bessent believes Iran's kinetic actions are a response to economic weakness, and he thanked the European Union for their support of 'Operation Economic Outcast.'
“Well, uh, they're taking them very seriously. If you look back what the Iranian political leadership has said over the past 10 days, uh, they're, they're in shock at the state of their economy. And, you know, we're, we're seeing gas lines, could you imagine a country in the world with the third largest amount of, uh, energy resources has to import gasolines. And they now have three, four hour gas lines that go through the night. So, uh, I would think that they are lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically.”
“And I want to thank the European Union for their very fulsome, fulsome support for Operation Economic Outcast. They made it known today in the strongest terms that they supported.”