Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has slammed “crude propaganda” by the US, adding that Washington “still seems to assume that nations have neither memory nor the capacity for critical thought”.

“On one side stands a brutal economic war, deliberately designed to inflict maximum pain and suffering on every Iranian citizen. On the other stands the theatrical announcement of measures to stop Iranian officials from supposedly shopping at an American wholesale club,” he writes on X.

He admonishes Washington for being outraged over Iranian officials shopping and overlooking “sanctioning an entire nation’s livelihood”.

“The propaganda is so crude and threadbare that it exposes the naivety of the mindset that launched an unlawful war of choice against the nation of Iran, and helped deliver the United States to the embarrassing position it occupies today.”