Iran responds to US increasing economic sanctions: This is "economic terrorism"

On April 16th local time, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Baqaei responded on social media to the United States' threats to increase sanctions on Iran, stating that these policies are "intentionally causing pain to people," and this behavior is "economic terrorism" and "extortion," essentially constituting crimes against humanity and genocide. According to US sources on the 15th, US Treasury Secretary Besent warned that the United States is preparing to increase its economic pressure on Iran and stated that these new measures "economically will be equivalent to a military bombing operation."