U.S. Central Command says the naval blockade has denied Iran at least $25 billion in oil exports and left the IRGC unable to pay its troops.
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a Friday video update that America’s naval blockade and economic pressure campaign have imposed crushing financial pain on Tehran’s security machine. He reported that the effort has blocked at least $25 billion in Iranian crude exports and frozen nearly $350 million in cryptocurrency assets with help from U.S. agencies.
Breitbart News reported Cooper’s assessment that the strain now reaches the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps itself, the regime’s core military and terror-export arm. Iran’s government is withholding salaries, pensions, and benefits across industries, including the IRGC, he said.
Cooper put the bottom line in plain terms.
"The sum total of these actions has imposed devastating costs on Iran’s security apparatus and the IRGC specifically."
He added that the money problems run so deep that Iran-aligned militia groups across the region are reportedly holding back pay from their own fighters to send cash back to the IRGC, which still is not paying its troops.
"The financial strain on Iran’s military has become so significant that there are reports of Iran-aligned militia groups across the region withholding payments to their soldiers in order to funnel money back to the IRGC, which also is not paying its troops."
The United States reimposed the naval blockade in July under a campaign Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called Operation Economic Outcast. Cooper said the blockade has effectively closed Iran’s seaborne crude exports while keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to commercial traffic. Humanitarian assistance is the only sea exception. Iran, he said, has “no exports and no imports by sea.”
Bessent announced at the beginning of October that September was the first month on record in which Iran loaded no crude oil for export. He has described the overall isolation effort as the greatest economic isolation operation in history.
The pressure builds on Operation Epic Fury, a 38-day military campaign earlier this year. More than 50,000 American service members remain deployed across the Middle East, clearing Iranian mines, enforcing the blockade, defending regional partners, and protecting commercial shipping.
Cooper rejected Iranian claims of control over the waterway and stressed that normal commerce continues under American and partner protection.
"Let me be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and our regional partners, not Iran, and it remains open for business."
Over the past week, he said, roughly 400 merchant ships passed through Hormuz and more than 100 million barrels of crude moved with U.S. help to regional partners. In recent months, that assistance has covered more than 1.3 billion barrels of Gulf crude.
The threat to shipping remains real. Cooper cited International Maritime Organization figures showing more than 20 civilian mariners killed since February in Revolutionary Guards attacks on merchant vessels in the strait. The IRGC has kept hitting commercial ships even as the blockade tightens the regime’s cash flow.
Cooper’s judgment on the regime’s condition was blunt.
"The Islamic regime is clearly feeling the economic pain, and the IRGC is increasingly showing signs of greater desperation as a result."
President Donald Trump spoke Friday at a rally in Georgia about the same campaign. He said multiple layers of Iranian leadership have been removed and that he now has few counterparts left to deal with.
"I might have gone too far with the leaders because I have nobody to talk to. Their first leaders are gone. Their second level of leaders is gone. Part of their third level."
Trump also pointed to 301 percent inflation inside Iran and said Iranian military branches have been devastated. He is weighing renewed military action while keeping the blockade in place and pursuing negotiations.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the U.S. sanctions Friday as “beyond the bounds of humanity” and insisted Tehran would not submit to American coercion. Iranian Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia disputed American control of Hormuz. He claimed U.S. warships had been forced more than 500 kilometers from Iran’s shores and warned of new operations to push American forces farther from the region.
Those claims sit against Cooper’s traffic numbers, the zero-export September figure Bessent announced, the frozen crypto haul, and the reported payroll collapse inside the IRGC and its militia network. One side describes a regime running out of money and options. The other denies the squeeze is working and rejects U.S. dominance at sea.
The verified record from the CENTCOM update is straightforward: oil money cut off, digital funds seized, troops unpaid, and commercial shipping still moving under U.S. and partner guard. The blockade is doing what maximum pressure is supposed to do, starve the apparatus that funds proxies, weapons, and attacks.
When the IRGC cannot make payroll and has to raid its own militias for cash, the regime’s priorities are no longer a secret.
