TEHRAN -- Iranian officials on Saturday hit out t U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio over his anachronistic imperial hubris, warning that Washington’s terrorist campaign against Iran will end in historic humiliation.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf delivered a historical rebuke to Rubio’s “imperialist rhetoric,” warning that foreign powers seeking to erase ancient civilizations will ultimately face “historic humiliation and defeat.”
In a post on X, Ghalibaf responded to Rubio’s recent remarks romanticizing Western hegemony, making clear that the Iranian nation has defied self-proclaimed “masters of the universe” for millennia.
“Throughout history we Iranians have faced those who declared themselves masters of the universe and sought to erase ancient civilizations. They came in fire and flame, only to depart in dust and shame,” Ghalibaf wrote. 
“Those who chase Alexander’s legacy will share Valerian’s fate: you will kneel.”
Rubio, speaking in Athens on October 8, attempted to frame Washington’s aggressive foreign policy as a continuation of ancient Western glory. 
“We believe that the West can awaken from its long slumber — and rekindle the fire that was first lit in ancient Greece millennia ago,” Rubio claimed.
Ghalibaf’s invocation of Roman Emperor Valerian carries profound historical significance. Valerian is remembered as the only Roman emperor taken prisoner of war, captured by Sasanian Persian King Shapur I following the Battle of Edessa in 260 AD. 
Major General Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, invoked the same historical episode to counter Rubio’s framing. 
“When they go to Athens after defeat and humiliation before Iran to shape a narrative of a civilizational war, it would be better for them to read another important part of history: where the Roman emperor knelt before Shapur I of the Sasanian Empire,” Rezaei wrote. 
“Whoever brings history into it must be ready for its repetition!”
Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, also rebuked Rubio for “lecturing others on morality” after glorifying ancient Greeks’ wartime resistance while disparaging Iran’s embrace of martyrdom.
“Praising resistance when it serves ‘one’s own’ and denigrating it when it comes from ‘the other’ is not civilization; it is sophistry in the service of domination,” Velayati wrote on X. 
“Mr. Rubio, your problem is not with the Islamic Revolution; it is with a strong, independent Iranian civilization. Those who brought about the catastrophes of Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan have no right to lecture others on morality!”