Speaking at the Acropolis, Rubio presented the United States as the inheritor of ancient Western civilisation running from Greece to Rome. He argued that modern Western countries have lost their confidence and need renewed ambition, and referenced the Persian destruction of Athens in 480 BC under King Xerxes I as an example of Western civilisation surviving an external enemy.
“The Persians plundered the temples, burned the shrines and razed the Acropolis to the ground,” Rubio said, later hailing the return of the Athenians and the construction of the Parthenon under Pericles. He directed his rhetoric against Iran’s current leaders, calling them “fanatics” who run a “death cult” that wields martyrdom as a political tool.
Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, and parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf responded by invoking the Roman Emperor Valerian, who was captured alive by Persian King Shapur I’s forces in 260 AD. “Anyone who brings history into this must be prepared for its repetition,” Rezaei said.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Rubio of flattening Greek, Roman, Christian and modern history, and of using an “America First” narrative to legitimise a military escalation against Iran after a relative decrease in fighting since June, when a now-defunct memorandum of understanding was agreed. The US and Iran have been at war since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Fighting has subsided but the US continues a naval blockade on Iran and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted.