We will shut down Iran's oil sector, he said during an appearance in New York on Thursday, reports CNBC.
President Donald Trump's government introduced the new sanctions at the beginning of February, and they are aimed, among other things, at the export chain that transports Iranian oil to China.
The goal for the USA is, according to Bessent, to achieve "immediate maximum impact" and get Iran's already wounded economy to "collapse".
A tool to achieve this is to also shut Iran out of the international payment system.
The market reactions to Bessent's speech were seen in the price of a barrel of North Sea oil (brent) rising by 0.3 percent to 69.48 dollars.
The American WTI oil also rose, by 0.1 percent to 66.36 dollars per barrel.
