Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei attends an interview, in Tehran, Iran, April 5.
Majid-Asgaripour/Wana News Agency/Reuters

Iran pushed back on US President Donald Trump’s threat of an “economic D-Day,” calling it “a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Friday the United States’ declaration of new economic sanctions against the country is an “assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent Member State of the United Nations.”

The US president had earlier threatened “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION” against Iran in a social media post on August 19.

He also warned there would be economic consequences for countries that continue to do business with Tehran.

“Economic coercion designed to force a sovereign State to alter its lawful policy choices constitutes an outright internationally wrongful act,” Baghaei added in Friday’s post on X. “Compliance purchases no immunity or respect; it merely concedes that one’s banks, enterprises, and airports operate only under a foreign licence.”

The Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that those who order or implement the levies “are liable to prosecution and punishment,” reported state media IRIB.