U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly stated that Washington “created a dollar shortage” in Iran, a move he said helped collapse a major Iranian bank following a run on deposits. The remarks, made before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, followed long-standing accusations by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that recent unrest was engineered from abroad. In a fiery address in Tehran, Khamenei called the turmoil a “U.S.–Zionist plot” aimed at destabilising the Islamic Republic and likened it to a failed coup.