BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 10. Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, has criticised US Secretary of State Marco Rubio over remarks he made during a visit to Athens, in which he drew parallels between ancient Greco-Persian conflicts and current tensions between Tehran and Washington.
In a post on X, Velayati accused Rubio of applying what he described as a double standard when assessing resistance by different nations.
“There is a glaring contradiction in Rubio’s recent speech: Standing firm ‘to the last man’ is praised in the context of ancient Greece, yet the steadfastness of the great Iranian nation is disparaged with the label of a ‘death cult’,” Velayati wrote.
“Mr Rubio, your problem is not with the Islamic Revolution; it is with a strong and independent Iranian civilisation,” he added.
Velayati argued that praising resistance when it concerns one’s own side while condemning it when demonstrated by others amounts to dishonesty rather than a defence of civilisation.
He also referred to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing that those responsible for such events had no right to lecture others on morality.
