Iran says US sanctions strategy has become an ‘addiction’

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei accused Washington on Monday of relying reflexively on economic sanctions, responding to remarks by the US Treasury secretary about “suffocating” Iran economically.

In a post on X, Baghaei said the United States turns to sanctions when diplomacy fails and intensifies them when they do not produce the desired outcome, describing the approach as a “habit” and an “addiction.”

He also argued that decades of sanctions had failed to force Iran into submission and warned that further pressure could reduce Washington’s chances of finding a diplomatic way out of the current crisis.