Iran Labels US Sanctions a ‘Dangerous Addiction’ Replacing Diplomacy

Iran’s Foreign Ministry says Washington reaches for economic sanctions every time it fails at the negotiating table calling the habit a full-blown addiction that has replaced strategic thinking.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Fires Back at Washington

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has taken sharp aim at the United States saying America turns to economic sanctions whenever its diplomacy collapses. He described the pattern as a dangerous addiction that has long replaced any real political thinking in Washington.

Baghaei made the remarks in a pointed post on social media platform X, responding directly to comments by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had boasted about “strangling” Iran through economic pressure.

Baghaei Calls Sanctions an American Obsession

“Aside from the sheer arrogance,” Baghaei wrote, “that claim is a vivid demonstration of America’s compulsive dependence on sanctions. Every time Washington fails at diplomacy, it retreats to sanctions and every time those sanctions don’t deliver, it simply increases the dose. This is no longer a policy it is a habit. And what is even more dangerous, it is an addiction that has displaced thinking itself.”

The Iranian spokesperson did not hold back he went further, delivering a blunt warning to American policymakers. He said the United States risks strangling its own remaining chances at a less humiliating exit from a crisis of its own making.

Iran Points to Decades of Resilience

Baghaei underlined that Iran has demonstrated over decades that it cannot be throttled by such external pressure measures. He argued that the repeated escalation of sanctions reveals a strategic bankruptcy rather than strength. In his view, Washington’s playbook has grown predictable and ineffective.

Strait of Hormuz and Nuclear Deal in Focus

The sharp diplomatic exchange comes against the backdrop of delicate negotiations. US President Donald Trump had earlier stated that he had called off military strikes against Iran citing the possibility of an emerging deal. The broad contours of that agreement reportedly include an opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an arrangement on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry had separately announced that Tehran and Oman had worked out the geographic details of a shipping passage route through the Strait of Hormuz a critical waterway for global energy flows.

The flaring rhetoric from Tehran signals that even as back-channel diplomacy proceeds, Iran will not soften its public posture on the sanctions issue framing it not as a matter of pressure, but of American strategic failure.