Iran's Security Chief Mohsen Rezaee took a swing at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, making clear that U.S. economic restrictions on Tehran won't be enough to force the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Bessent Has No 'Credibility,' Rezaee Says

In a post on the social media platform X, Rezaee shared a Bloomberg article that questioned Bessent's forecasts on the housing market, gas prices and more.

“Bessent’s delusional forecasts never had any credibility in the first place,” Rezaee said. The Security Chief added that Bessent's “latest propaganda” will have an “equally short shelf life.”

Rezaee then said that the U.S. had lost the “military war” and that it will lose the economic war as well. “Hormuz will not be opened by threats or pressure. Iran will not back down,” he added.

Bessent Mocks Iran Oil Minister

Taking to X, Bessent doubled down on his criticism of Iran after the country's oil minister Mohsen Paknejad resigned following allegations about unpaid oil revenues.

“Iran has a new oil minister,” Bessent said, before pointing to comments he made last week about Iran not being able to move oil following restrictions from Operation Economic Outcast.

“Considering Iran has not loaded a single barrel of crude onto a vessel since August 25th, what is the oil minister managing?” Bessent asked in his post.

Notably, provisional data from industry tracker Kpler showed that the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the Middle East, had recovered to, and on some days, exceeded pre-war levels. However, attacks on vessels traversing the waterway had also ramped up, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center (UKMTO).

On the other hand, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) analyst Nikhil Bhandari said that the investment bank expects Strait of Hormuz traffic to normalize by the second half of 2027 and that crude oil prices would stabilize at around $80/bbl once traffic resumes.

Oil Movement

Oil continues to remain volatile, with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures contracts expiring in November 2026 gaining 0.78% to $90.14 at the time of writing this article. Brent futures contracts ending in December also showed growth, rising 0.83% to $101.41 at press time.

During the overnight trading session on Tuesday, the United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) ETF grew 0.55% to $145.70, while the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (NYSE:UCO) grew 0.64% to $54.78.

On Tuesday, the national average gas price grew to $4.3685/gallon, according to data collected by the American Automobile Association (AAA). The data showed that on Monday, the price was $4.3653/gallon. On the diesel front, the national average price was $6.3151/gallon.