Tehran has firmly rejected a fresh round of American financial sanctions, asserting that the country will not yield to pressure and warning that Washington's actions diminish the likelihood of achieving a negotiated resolution to the Middle East crisis.
The response follows an enforcement action taken Friday by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). That action targeted a network of individuals, currency exchange houses, and corporate entities operating across several nations, accusing them of facilitating covert transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Iran's Shahr Bank.
Addressing the development in a social media post on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei pointed to statements by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent regarding plans to achieve "suffocating" economic pressure on Iran.
Baghaei maintained that such tactics are destined to fail, stating that Iran had "demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains," while emphasizing that the newly imposed penalties serve only to make a peaceful diplomatic outcome less attainable.
According to the US Treasury Department, Friday's action represents the eighth sanction wave launched in 2026 aimed at disrupting Iran's covert financial apparatus as part of Washington's ongoing "maximum pressure" initiative.
“Iran’s shadow banking system is buckling under Economic Fury, and the regime is running out of ways to move money," Bessent asserted in a formal Treasury statement released Friday, promising that American authorities will continue uncovering these international illicit networks and severing their access to the US financial sector.
Meanwhile on Monday, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter about his previous comments warning that the current negotiations with Iran represented its final chance before "decapitation," and was pressed on what comes next.
“You’ll find out," Trump replied. Asked whether a massive escalation remains on the table, Trump added, “Well, we certainly have that ability if we want to do that. You’ll find out."
The President also reiterated his opposition to Iran’s demands for reparations - a topic he had addressed earlier in a post on Truth Social - stating, “They ask for reparations, you might say, or they ask for money for the damage that we've done. And I said, that's a good idea. Well, we're going to ask for money for the damage they've done over a 50-year period, whether you go USS Cole or whether you go [to] all of the people that were so badly hurt, so badly wounded or killed - many thousands of people. And maybe damages for the 52,000 protesters over the last four months that were killed in Iran. It was at least 52,000 a month and a half ago. So now what is it? If there are damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages."