Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, has dismissed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's claims about Tehran as internally contradictory, IRNA reported on August 23.

The response points to Iran's effort to frame Washington's escalating economic pressure as a sign of weakness rather than strength, casting the sanctions drive as an admission that military action had failed to subdue the country.

It follows Bessent's announcement of an "economic D-Day" against Iran, which US President Donald Trump has described as the most crushing economic operation ever mounted against a country.

"Mr Bessent! Your narrative does not add up," Gharibabadi wrote on X, cited by IRNA.

"You say Iran's military capability has been dismantled, 100% of its military factories destroyed and its nuclear programme buried, yet for this same Iran, the largest financial offensive in history and the mobilisation of all America's institutions and authorities is needed. Is this a victory or an admission of American defeat?"

Bessent said the US was entering the endgame of its campaign against Iran, describing the measures as an economic D-Day intended to sever every economic lifeline sustaining the Iranian government.

Trump has threatened severe financial penalties on any country that provides Tehran with what he called a lifeline, warning that banks, businesses, airports and government bodies dealing with Iran would face consequences.

The measures extend a pressure campaign that Washington has run since April under the banner of Operation Economic Fury, targeting oil-smuggling networks, money transfers, currency exchange houses and ship registries.

The Trump administration reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports earlier this year, though tanker-tracking data has repeatedly shown vessels linked to Iran continuing to move crude out of the Gulf.

Iran has consistently rejected US sanctions as illegal and ineffective, arguing that decades of restrictions have failed to force political change.

Tehran has deepened trade ties with fellow sanctioned states including Venezuela and has relied on a shadow fleet of tankers to sustain oil exports to buyers in Asia.