Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was careful Thursday to frame the administration’s potential Iranian oil sanctions waiver as a supply action rather than a foreign policy shift, arguing the measure is purely tactical and does not reflect any change in US policy toward Tehran. Bessent confirmed the administration is considering temporarily lifting sanctions on approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian crude stranded on tankers, to address oil prices above $100 per barrel since Iran’s Hormuz blockade began.
The Hormuz blockade has removed between 10 and 14 million barrels of daily supply from global markets for close to two weeks, creating a sustained price shock that has generated economic pressure worldwide. The administration has been seeking ways to reframe its supply-side interventions as market actions rather than geopolitical concessions, amid concerns about the precedents being set.
Bessent said the stranded Iranian crude, originally destined for Chinese buyers, could be redirected to global markets through a targeted temporary waiver without constituting a shift in the US’s overall Iran policy. He described the measure as a physical supply intervention designed to bridge a two-week gap, not a diplomatic opening or softening of the administration’s stance toward Tehran.
The Treasury has used this framing before, issuing a supply-focused waiver for Russian oil that added approximately 130 million barrels to world markets. An additional unilateral US Strategic Petroleum Reserve release beyond the G7’s 400 million barrel commitment is also planned, with the administration consistently framing all its interventions as supply actions.
Policy and compliance experts challenged the framing. They argued that regardless of how the waiver is characterized, enabling Iranian oil revenues constitutes a real financial benefit to Tehran that can fund military activities and proxy support. Critics said the supply action framing does not change the strategic reality: allowing an adversary to sell its oil during an active conflict is a foreign policy decision, whatever language is used to describe it.