In a post on his X account on Thursday, Araghchi dismissed President Donald Trump’s latest economic pressure campaign against Iran, saying the newly announced so-called “Economic D-Day” is an effort to distract attention from mounting domestic economic challenges.
“The so-called “Economic D-Day” is a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs,” he said.
The top Iranian diplomat warned that increasing pressure on Iran will not resolve Washington’s economic problems but “will only bring further defeat—and enmity of Iranians.”
Araghchi further said the United States is pursuing “economic terrorism,” emphasizing that sanctions and economic coercion pose a threat not only to Iran but also to the global economy and the sovereignty of nations across the globe.
On Wednesday, Trump announced what he called the “most crushing economic operation” against Iran, claiming that Tehran would face “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale”. He also threatened sanctions against any country that does business with Iran.
The threat comes as his war on Iran, launched alongside the Israeli regime on February 28, has failed to reach any of its objectives.
In the post, Araghchi shared two reports by The New York Times and CNN on the US national debt, which has surpassed $40 trillion.
According to The New York Times, America’s gross national debt topped $40 trillion for the first time on Wednesday, an ominous milestone for an economy that sits on a shaky fiscal foundation after decades of borrowing to pay for the rising costs of the military, social safety net programs and Trump’s tax cuts.
This year alone, the United States is on track to borrow more than $2 trillion to help pay for its obligations, including spending on the war in Iran and the sweeping tax cuts that Republicans enacted in 2025.
Using a graph, CNN also cited a Treasury Department report and said the United States is digging itself into an ever-deeper debt hole.
The federal debt hit a record $40 trillion on Tuesday, according to the Treasury Department.
Also reacting to Trump’s threats, Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said that Washington's economic campaign is doomed to fail.
“They claim that Iran is on the verge of defeat and hanging by a thread, yet they are begging all their allies to help them,” he wrote on X on Thursday.
“The problem is the miscalculations that, each time, force them to inflict an even greater defeat on themselves in an attempt to cover it up. The military war failed to deliver results; now they have called the next defeat an ‘economic war’,” Gharibabadi added.
Press TV