TEHRAN -- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday sharply derided U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that economic pressure will force Tehran to capitulate, saying Washington is repeating the same “delusions” that have produced decades of failed American policy toward Iran.
In a post on X, Araghchi recalled remarks by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo eight years ago that Iranians would have to follow White House dictates “if they want to eat”. 
“Today, Rubio—whose fellow Cubans are victims of the same policy—repeats that drivel,” Araghchi wrote. “Forget about the inhumanity. It’s the delusions that are producing failed U.S. policy.” 
The remarks followed Rubio’s comments to reporters in Paris on Tuesday after a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, in which he claimed that economic sanctions and naval restrictions were proving so effective that there was no need for major new military operations against Iran. 
“Eventually, you have to eat, you have to pay your own fighters, your own security forces,” Rubio said.
Araghchi’s response drew an explicit parallel between Iran and Cuba, highlighting Rubio’s Cuban-American background and Washington’s longstanding embargo against the island. 
The Iranian foreign minister has repeatedly stressed that neither military strikes nor intensified sanctions will end the confrontation, insisting that diplomacy and respect for Iran’s conditions remain the only viable path.
 Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, successive U.S. administrations have imposed waves of 
economic sanctions against Iran, repeatedly seeking to weaken the Islamic Republic, undermine its stability, and force it into submission. Despite decades of escalating economic pressure, Washington has failed to achieve these objectives.
Instead, the repeated resort to economic coercion has exposed the failure of Washington’s pressure strategy, with successive administrations continuing to impose new restrictions despite the inability of previous rounds to deliver their intended political outcomes.