In a statement on Monday, Baghaei said the American official’s remarks went beyond mere arrogance and revealed a deep-rooted habit in Washington’s foreign policy, Iran’s English-language Press TV reports. “Beyond its sheer pathos, the claim is a stark testament to America’s compulsive addiction to sanctions,” Baghaei said. “Whenever Washington proves itself incapable of pursuing diplomacy, it retreats into sanctions; and whenever those sanctions fail to produce results, it simply increases the dose.” “This is no longer ‘policy’ — it is ‘habit’; and more dangerously still, it is an addiction that has displaced thought itself.” “Iran has demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains,” he said.