Bessent Calls Iran 'Cornered Animals' as Tehran Threatens 'Painful' Retaliation and Oil Prices Slip

Since Trump's UN General Assembly threat to 'annihilate' Iran and the surprise envoy talks that followed, this week has brought a new round of public posturing from both sides, even as backchannel diplomacy continues.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News' Special Report on Wednesday that the Iranian regime is 'cornered.' He described a strategy of 'sequencing' military, economic and financial pressure over roughly six weeks of what he called 'kinetic activity,' layered with a naval blockade and what he described as an unprecedented effort to cut off Iran's 'financial oxygen.'

'I don't know whether it's going to be a week, a month or two months, but they're going to yell uncle,' Bessent said, according to Fox News. He laid out three possible outcomes: the regime turning on itself, an uprising by the Iranian people, or a deal that Iran actually keeps this time. Bessent pointed to a prior memorandum of understanding from June 3 that he says Iran abandoned within weeks before it began firing on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's military is not talking retreat. Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the regime's central operational command, warned that any further US strike would trigger 'sustained, effective and painful attacks' on American bases and interests 'without any limitation or consideration,' according to Breitbart. The command also said regional countries that assist a US attack would be treated as parties to the conflict.

The military command claimed, without disclosing supporting evidence, that it had information suggesting Washington was preparing another strike, decided at a meeting in Europe with the 'green light' of unnamed regional countries. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Al Jazeera Saturday that another American strike is 'very much on the cards' and that Iran is prepared for a 'decisive war.'

At the same time, Rezaei said Qatar has carried Iran's conditions for renewed negotiations to Washington: an end to the war 'on all fronts,' release of Iran's frozen funds, and an end to the naval blockade. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran will not return to the prior negotiating framework or reopen the Strait of Hormuz until those conditions are met and what he called US commitments are fulfilled. Those are Iran's stated red lines going into any new round of talks, not a confirmed basis for a deal.

On the diplomatic track, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said American and Iranian delegations held 'lengthy talks' through mediators around the UN General Assembly, according to CNN. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that US negotiators tried to 'jump start diplomacy' on Iran's nuclear program through side talks at the summit, an effort first detailed by The New York Times. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian landed in New York for the Assembly as those contacts were underway, Iranian state media reported.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, who met Trump on the sidelines of the summit, said the meeting was 'very good' and that he had his 'fingers crossed' for an Iran deal, according to Ground News' compilation of Bloomberg and other coverage. That optimism moved markets: the Philippine peso gained 5.5 centavos against the dollar on hopes for de-escalation, BusinessWorld reported.

Oil, which had jumped 4% in the prior session on war-risk pricing, eased back Thursday morning in Asia. Brent crude futures fell 0.9%, or 94 cents, to $102.13 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate dropped 0.7%, or 59 cents, to $91.56, according to Reuters figures cited by Fox News.

Not everyone buys the sequencing narrative Bessent is selling. A Foreign Policy analysis published by The Washington Post argues that 'by nearly every metric, the U.S. is losing the Iran war,' noting that Trump declared in early March that the US had already 'won' and just needed to 'finish the job,' only for fighting to escalate months later with no resolution in sight. This is a direct rebuttal to the administration's public framing, not a settled fact either way. Bessent's own admission that the timeline could stretch to two more months undercuts any claim of imminent victory, while Iran's public defiance and expanded threat list suggest Tehran does not see itself as beaten yet.

What happens next depends on whether Qatar's message produces an actual counteroffer from Washington. Trump told Fox News' Trey Yingst last weekend that he is weighing three options: 'wiping Iran out,' letting the country 'rot economically,' or making a deal. He gave no timetable. Bessent's own admission, that the pressure campaign could take 'a week, a month or two months,' is the closest thing to a public deadline either side has offered.