Rubio invokes Xerxes against Iran – Tehran hits back with captured emperor Valerian
A speech in Athens by the U.S. secretary of state on 'Western civilisation' and the Persian sack of the Acropolis has drawn sharp pushback from Iran, which called it an 'anachronism'.
Symbolic image · Photo: A.Savin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has drawn sharp reactions in Iran with a speech delivered in Athens on Oct. 7 with the Acropolis as a backdrop. He cast the United States as heir to Western civilisation from Greece to Rome and recalled the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC: "The Persians plundered the temples, burned the shrines and razed the Acropolis to the ground." Today's threats, he said, are "every bit as real," calling Iran's leaders "fanatics" running a "death cult."
Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei and parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf invoked the Roman Emperor Valerian, captured by Persian forces in AD 260. "Anyone who brings history into this must be prepared for its repetition," Rezaei said. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei called Rubio's approach an "anachronism," and the ministry accused him of using history to justify escalation.
Iranian historian Touraj Daryaei noted that Rubio left out that the Persian attack was partly retaliation for Athens burning Sardis in 498 BC. Johns Hopkins professor Vali Nasr said Iran had been cast as a common enemy to bind the West together and paper over deep divisions between the U.S. and Europe on Russia and Ukraine. The U.S. naval blockade of Iran continues.