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

Iran late Monday mocked the Trump administration’s reliance on economic sanctions, warning that Washington’s repeated attempts to squeeze Tehran are less a strategy than an “addiction” that could ultimately leave the US with fewer options to end the crisis.Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei took aim at US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after he claimed that American sanctions were “suffocating” Iran. In a post on X, Baqaei dismissed the claim and accused Washington of turning to economic pressure whenever it failed to achieve its objectives through diplomacy.“The US Secretary of the Treasury has boasted of “suffocating” Iran through economic sanctions. Beyond its sheer pathos, the claim is a stark testament to America’s compulsive addiction to sanctions,” Baqaei wrote.“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.