Iran Rejects US Treasury Secretary's Sanctions Boast as Policy Failure

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has strongly rejected the US Treasury Secretary's boast of 'suffocating' Iran through economic sanctions, describing the claim as both pathetic and clear evidence of America's compulsive addiction to coercive measures.

In a post on his X account, Baqaei wrote that the US Secretary of the Treasury has boasted of 'suffocating' Iran through economic sanctions, and said that beyond its sheer pathos, the claim is a stark testament to America's compulsive addiction to sanctions.

Baqaei pointed out that whenever Washington proves itself incapable of pursuing diplomacy, it retreats into sanctions; and whenever those sanctions fail to produce results, it simply increases the dose. The senior Iranian diplomat reiterated that this is no longer 'policy'—it is 'habit'; and more dangerously still, it is an addiction that has displaced thought itself.

Baqaei stressed that Iran has demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains, saying that the real risk is that American politicians, clinging to this bad habit, will instead strangle their own remaining chances of a less humiliating exit from a crisis of their own making.

According to Mehr News Agency (MNA), these remarks come amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the United States over sanctions and nuclear issues. The US has maintained a policy of maximum pressure on Iran, which Tehran has consistently resisted.