Tehran: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has declared that Washington's anti-Iran policy has devolved into a bitter joke, condemning recent US attempts to escalate economic pressure on Iran.

According to Islamic Republic News Agency, Baqaei expressed his views on social media platform X, highlighting that the US is attempting to create an anti-Iran coalition by reaching out to nations with minimal or nonexistent economic ties to Iran. He specifically pointed out Bahrain as an example, a nation with "virtually no meaningful economic exchange with Iran," to illustrate the ineffectiveness of the coalition efforts.

Baqaei further criticized the US for halting Iranian sports and academic exchanges, which he noted had already been inactive for years. He accused the US of imposing sanctions on areas already under sanctions and misleadingly portraying this as a successful coalition strategy.