Not in a position

US is "not in a position" to limit economic relations, Iran’s top negotiator says

By Aida Karimi and Mitchell McCluskey

After US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened new sanctions targeting countries with ties to Iran, top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf argued that the US is not in an economic position to restrict its relations with other countries.

“The Americans know that no one believes their bluster. Economically, the United States is not in a position to further restrict its relations with other countries,” Ghalibaf said.

Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, wrote in a post on X that “Iran’s trading partners have stated — both publicly in the media and in messages sent to us — that they attach no importance to these remarks.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency quoted a senior Iranian intelligence source as claiming the new US measures were aimed primarily at influencing public opinion rather than imposing meaningful new restrictions.

The source said the measures were “based solely on the design of Trump’s media team” and were intended to increase “psychological pressure on the people of Iran,” Tasnim added, without naming the source.