‘Compulsive addiction to sanctions’: Iran mocks Trump admin's ‘suffocating’ threat

Iran mocked the United States' reliance on economic sanctions, warning that Washington's repeated attempts to isolate Tehran are more an "addiction" than a strategic approach. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, dismissed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's claim that American sanctions were "suffocating" Iran.

Baqaei accused Washington of resorting to economic pressure whenever it failed to achieve its objectives through diplomacy. He wrote that the US Treasury's "compulsive addiction to sanctions" had displaced thought itself.

Bessent responded by stating that Washington would continue increasing economic pressure on Tehran, noting that Iran's use of digital assets and shadow banking networks demonstrated the effectiveness of the sanctions. However, Baqaei warned that the continued use of sanctions could negatively impact the US position rather than force Tehran to capitulate.

He emphasized that Iran had proven over decades that it would not be "strangled" by sanctions and that the real risk was that American politicians, clinging to this "bad habit," would instead harm their own chances of a less humiliating exit from the crisis.