Iran calls US Iran policy “pure parody”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei on Wednesday dismissed recent US sanctions against Tehran as “pure parody,” saying Washington is “sanctioning the already sanctioned and calling the empty space a coalition.”

In a post on X, Baqaei, wrote that the US turned to Bahrain—which he called a country with “virtually no meaningful economic exchange with Iran”—to demonstrate that its coalition is working.

He added that the US then moved to “stop” Iranian sports and academic exchanges “that had already been effectively dead for years.”

Washington’s Iran policy has reached pure parody.

It turns to Bahrain - a country with virtually no meaningful economic exchange with Iran - to prove that its “coalition” is working.

It then “stops” Iranian sports and academic exchanges that had already been effectively dead…

— Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) August 26, 2026

The comments came a day after the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control indefinitely suspended several general licenses under Iran sanctions regulations.

These included General License F, which had authorized certain professional and amateur sports activities and exchanges, and General License G, covering academic exchanges and related educational services.

Other suspended authorizations covered some third-country educational activities, conference services, and noncommercial personal remittances.

A temporary wind-down license runs until September 8.

The suspensions formed part of a broader package of new US economic measures announced around August 24, which US officials described as an “economic D-Day” or “Operation Economic Outcast.”

The steps expand pressure on Iran’s oil, banking, digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping sectors and threaten secondary sanctions on entities dealing with Tehran. Bahrain’s finance minister discussed the measures with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to Bahraini state media.