Iran and the United States traded sharply worded warnings this week, with a senior Iranian security official ruling out any negotiations with Washington while the US Treasury Department pressed ahead with new sanctions targeting supporters of Tehran, including a major Russian bank.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on the social media platform X that Iran would not sit down at the negotiating table until its conditions were met. He accused President Donald Trump of sending contradictory signals about the possibility of talks.
"Don't get distracted by the U.S. president's mixed signals, from 'no negotiations' to 'we're ready to talk,'" Rezaei wrote. "The stakes around oil and the straits have changed. Damage control won't stop what's coming."
Rezaei is one of Iran's most senior security officials, heading the body that oversees the country's defense and national security policy and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Tehran shuts the door on talks
Rezaei went further in his post, arguing that conditions around oil markets and the region's strategic waterways had shifted, and that efforts to limit the fallout would not, in his view, be enough to halt developments still to come.
"No talks until Iran's conditions are met. Period!" he wrote, closing his message with a blunt rejection of any near-term diplomacy.
Washington responds with economic pressure
The US government answered by signaling it would keep pursuing individuals and entities it accuses of giving Tehran economic, technological or material support.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on X that under what he called "Operation Economic Outcast," the Treasury Department "will continue to target and disrupt those who provide material, technological, or financial support that allows the Iranian regime to sustain its terrorist enterprise." He added that the Treasury "will not tolerate any support to the regime."
Bessent's message signaled that Washington intends to keep identifying and financially isolating people and organizations that help Tehran, extending a campaign the Treasury has pursued through sanctions designations for years.
Russia's VTB bank also targeted
The escalating US economic campaign was also reflected in sanctions imposed the previous day on VTB, a major Russian bank. According to the US Treasury, the move was linked to VTB's alleged role in mechanisms used to help evade restrictions imposed on Iran.
VTB is Russia's second-largest bank. It has already been under US sanctions since 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The new US action specifically addresses allegations that the bank helped Tehran get around sanctions.
Bessent had unveiled a broader economic pressure campaign against Iran the previous month, warning that Washington intends to act against Iranian economic interests wherever in the world they are located.
