Iranians Slap US Secretary of State | I Wish They Would Read History

A few days ago, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a speech in Athens in which, at the very beginning, he quoted Xerxes and spoke of the city of Athens, attempting to portray the Achaemenids as a threat to Western civilization. The remarks are still drawing reactions from Iranians on social media.

A few days ago, Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, gave a speech in Athens, and at the very beginning of his speech, he said some words about Xerxes and the city of Athens, and tried to introduce the Achaemenians as a threat to Western civilization in an overview, a topic that is still associated with the reaction of Iranians on social networks.

According to ambassador Arjan; Rubio intended to draw a link between ancient Greece and Rome and the United States today, even with a false narrative about Iranian civilization, to tell about the need to restore the power of the West. These words were quickly noticed and Iranian users reacted to it, some said it was a distortion of history, and some others introduced it as a sign of America's historical and civilizational enmity with Iran, but the reactions about this distortion of history by the US Secretary of State are still ongoing. In recent days, every Iranian has tried as much as possible to inform the US Secretary of State of the reality of Iran's history, and from embassies' accounts on virtual pages to historians and cultural figures alongside ordinary people, they narrated the history of Iran's civilization and the reality of the attack on Athens.

In a situation where the tensions between Iran and America have reached their peak and the people of Iran are on the battlefield, the narrative of the history of Athens and the attack on this city was one of the topics that every Iranian could not easily ignore. This was the reason why social networks became the scene of confrontation between Iranians and Rubio in order to remind them of Iranian civilization. In response to this speech, Karberi wrote: "If anyone has heard Rubio's speech and still thinks that the problem of the West, especially the United States, with Iran is only limited to the Islamic Republic and not a civilizational problem, he is a fool. The West still holds a grudge against the burning of the Acropolis by Xerxes. Or, another account pointed to the issue of America's identity and wrote: "When Rubio says this, it means they consider us their civilizational enemy."

A sun as old as American history

In addition to all the public reactions, the pages of the embassies, which had repeatedly shown their strength in the media war with specific ideas, did not fail to respond to Rubio. One of the most visited tweets was related to the response of the Iranian embassy in Bosnia, which published a picture of the oldest sun in the world, which was discovered in Lorestan and dates back to 2,600 years ago, and wrote: "The Iranian sun is 10 times older than your country." This short joke quickly entered the cycle of republishing and Mohsen Tanabandeh, a film and television actor, also joined the reaction group by republishing it. In this style of humorous response, instead of entering into historical controversy, the age of Iranian civilization was compared with the age of America. The Iranian embassy in Yerevan reacted to Rubio's statements in the same way and published a video and wrote: "The history of Iranian polo against American golf." The Iranian Embassy in Prague also published a picture of Trump and Rubio and wrote: "Of all the excuses that Washington could make to justify its illegal war against Iran, perhaps the most ridiculous was to put Plato's face on Trump's picture with Photoshop."

Among the film and television figures who reacted to this issue, the name of Behrang Alavi, a film and theater actor, received the most attention. By publishing a video on his personal page, he reacted to the statements of Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State. He pointed to the signs and proofs of ancient Iranian history in American museums and wrote: "Even your elders could not ignore Iranian civilization. It is better to watch our history in your museums to understand what oldness means. The remaining historical objects from the Achaemenid to Sasanian era, which are kept in the "Getty Villa" museum in Los Angeles, USA, are one of the collections that confirm Alavi's words.

Along with all the serious and humorous reactions, another part of the reactions is tied to history to reveal the intention of the US Secretary of State by clarifying that moment in Iran's history. Toraj Mariya, a historian and professor at the University of California, was one of the first figures in history who reacted to this issue. He wrote on the X social network: "If you will allow me, Mr. Rubio:

1- In 480 BC, Xerxes set Athens on fire as a punishment for burning Sardis, the center of the Achaemenid satrapy in 498 BC; An action that the Ionian Greeks had done.

2- In the last 200 years, it was the "West" - Britain, Russia and the United States - that attacked the "East", looted it and had a military presence there.

In the end, it was not a matter of confrontation between East and West. The Achaemenid Empire was a "world empire" that had a large number of Greek speakers among its citizens and military forces; People who fought alongside the Achaemenids and against the Greek city-states." He also explained in a televised interview about tying history with politics: "In the eyes of the Westerners, there has always been this Orientalist view, and they imagine the East as a society that does not change. "When this vision exists, they can easily use the past for their own purposes." The reaction of academic figures was not limited to maritime tourism. Wali Nasr, a professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC, said in an interview with Al Jazeera: "Rubio's goal was to define the common enmity of America and Europe in order to revive their relations. It does not matter to the American government whether these rhetorics alienate Iranians or not; Just as the Islamophobia of George W. Bush in the direction of distancing Muslims from each other was unimportant for America. However, this makes it clear that Washington does not make any difference between the Iranian people and Iran as a civilization and the Islamic Republic.