Iran threatens ‘consequences’ for countries that join US sanctions push

Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday warns countries of “consequences” if they join an economic pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic by the United States.

“The necessary warnings have definitely been given, because any complicity with America in carrying out its aggressive actions against Iran will definitely have its own consequences,” ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says in a weekly press briefing.

At the same time, the foreign ministry dismisses Washington’s declaration that it will impose severe sanctions, saying it disproves US claims to have dismantled Tehran’s military and nuclear capabilities.

“Your narrative doesn’t add up: you say that Iran’s military power has been ‘dismantled’, 100% of its military factories ‘destroyed’ and its nuclear program ‘buried’,” Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy foreign minister, says in a post on X.

Yet, he adds, “there is a need for ‘the largest financial invasion in history’ and the mobilisation of ‘all institutions and powers’ of the United States! Is this a victory or an admission of America’s defeat?”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in the Financial Times earlier that Washington was launching the “single greatest financial offensive marshalled against an adversary” — calling it an “economic D-Day.”

Bessent posted on X that the measure came after the United States “dismantled Iran’s military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program.”

He is scheduled to explain the new US sanctions at a press conference later.