Trump on Saturday threatened to "obliterate" Iranian energy plants if Tehran did not fully open the pivotal Strait of Hormuz, just a day after saying US objectives were "very close" and that he was considering "winding down" the war.

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if Trump was winding down or escalating the war, Bessent said: "They're not mutually exclusive. Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate."

"This is the only language the Iranians understand," he argued.

Iran's threats against shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of global gas and oil supplies flows, have caused energy prices to soar around the world.

Bessent, as part of efforts to abate market turmoil, has temporarily lifted US sanctions on Iranian and Russian oil that had already been loaded onto ships.

But the move has produced some backlash, with critics saying it will provide funding to Iran at the same time that the US-Israeli conflict is ongoing.

Asked on NBC about the contradiction, Bessent defended the move as helping alleviate pressure on US partners and lower the price Iran can receive for its oil.

"That Iranian oil was always going to be sold to the Chinese. It was going to be sold at a discount... So which is better? If oil prices spiked to $150 and they (Iran) were getting 70 percent of that, or oil prices below 100?"

The spike in crude prices has also seen costs at the pump across the United States quickly rise, creating potential political risks for the president just months before the midterm elections.

Bessent on Sunday refused to put a timeline on when Americans should expect prices to moderate, while arguing that the electorate will agree that removing Iran's nuclear threat will be worth the temporary costs.

"I don't know whether it's going to be 30 days. I don't know whether it's going to be 50 days. I don't know whether it's going to be 100 days," he said.

"But to have 50 years of peace in the Middle East and know that the Iranian regime is defanged," will be worth it.

Meanwhile, the exiled son of Iran's last shah Reza Pahlavi called on Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from targeting Iran's civilian infrastructure, because it "belongs to the Iranian people and to the future of a free Iran."

"Iran must be protected. The regime must be dismantled," US-based Pahlavi, who wields influence among the diaspora but holds no official position, said in a post on X Sunday.