Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei hit back at the US Treasury Secretary's claim of "suffocating" Iran through economic sanctions, calling
America's reliance on sanctions a "compulsive addiction" in a post on X. "Beyond its sheer pathos, the claim is a stark testament to America's compulsive addiction to sanctions. 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," he said. Baghaei said the US approach had "displaced thought itself," arguing that Iran had shown over decades it would not be "strangled" by sanctions. "This is no longer 'policy'—it is 'habit'; and more dangerously still, it is an addiction that has displaced thought itself. Iran has demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains," he said. He warned that the real risk lay not with Iran, but with US policymakers themselves. "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," Baghaei said.
US President Donald Trump on Monday scoffed at Iran’s demand for reparations for devastation caused to the country by the US and Israeli bombardment over the past five months — a demand he said Tehran’s negotiators hadn't raised until now.
Trump said he is now demanding “compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts.” Trump said he also wants Tehran to compensate the families of Iranian protesters who were killed.
“I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,” Trump said in his post.
Trump's post came after Baghaei stressed that Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the US meets its conditions. Tehran wants the US to end its blockade of Iranian ports, lift economic sanctions and release Iran’s frozen assets. It also said the US must pay compensation for war damage. “It is up to the US side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Baghaei said.
