Iranian Leader Ghalibaf Tries a Desperate Bluster, Gets Decimated by Bessent

The Iranian regime really is lost at this point.

The blockade is choking them out, and their economy is collapsing.

Now, Iran is struggling to ship oil and other commodities that generated most of its revenue, shipping records show. As recently as March, Iran exported 1.85 million barrels of crude oil a day, worth $191 million at international prices. There is no evidence any Iranian oil cargo has breached the U.S. blockade and reached Chinese customers or other buyers, said Homayoun Falakshahi, a senior oil analyst at the commodities-data company Kpler.

As we reported earlier:

The war has thrown around one million people out of work directly and another million indirectly, according to early estimates cited by Gholamhossein Mohammadi, an official at Iran’s Labor and Social-Affairs ministry. That is a significant portion of the roughly 25 million people who are normally employed in Iran.
The cost of living has soared, with the annual inflation rate reaching 67% in the month through mid-April from the same period a year earlier, according to Iran’s central bank. The subsidized price of red meat, which was mostly imported through sea routes, has gone up to the equivalent of around $3.60 a pound, beyond the reach of most in a country where the minimum wage is around $130 a month.
Iran’s national currency on Wednesday hit a record low of 1.8 million rial to the dollar.

How do you know it's working? Well, just listen to the Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, ranting. When he tells you it doesn't matter, you know it's hitting them hard.

3 days in, no well exploded.We could extend to 30 and livestream the well here.
That was the kind of junk advice the US admin gets from people like Bessent who also push the blockade theory and cranked oil up to $120+. Next stop:140. The issue isn't the theory, it's the mindset.
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) April 29, 2026

3 days in, no well exploded.We could extend to 30 and livestream the well here. That was the kind of junk advice the US admin gets from people like Bessent who also push the blockade theory and cranked oil up to $120+. Next stop:140. The issue isn't the theory, it's the mindset.

If it doesn't bother you, then why are your people objecting to the blockade? Here's politician and top IRGC officer Mohsen Rezaee.

Senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaee:

We will not tolerate a naval blockade.

If the blockade continues, Iran will respond. pic.twitter.com/sszDr2VtJ1
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 29, 2026

Why is their president telling people to conserve electricity?

U.S. CENTCOM also explained how they had stopped 42 tankers, cutting off $6 billion from the regime.

Statement from Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander on the success of the U.S. blockade against Iran: pic.twitter.com/78OL04k5cZ
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 29, 2026

But as Ghalibaf tried to bluster and bluff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the guy whose name Ghalibaf dropped, had a message.

.@SecScottBessent on pressuring the IRGC: The retirement funds they thought they had outside of Iran, we are freezing. Same with their villas in the South of France. We are going to track them down, and we are going to continue the economic pressure as well as the blockade. pic.twitter.com/jpLNHfo9vE
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 29, 2026

"We are sprinting for the finish line. President Trump told me three weeks ago to up the pressure again and we have gone to the buyers of Iranian oil and told them that we are willing to do secondary sanctions on your industries, on your banks, who tolerate Iranian oil in their system!"
"One of the big mistakes out of many that the Iranian leadership made was bombing their GCC counterparts because for years we had heard that there was no IRGC money in their bank accounts."
"Now they've become more transparent and we are freezing those bank accounts for the Iranian people. And we can see that every day it is more pressure on the regime, the retirement funds that they thought that they had outside of Iran."
"We are freezing. We're holding those for the Iranian people. Same with all their villas in the south of France and all over the world."
"And we are going to track them down and we are going to continue the economic pressure as well as the block on the Strait of Hormuz!"

So Ghalibaf can bluster, but they have a big problem.

Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.

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