Iran spokesman invokes Persia's defeat of Rome in apparent message to US
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, has invoked the Roman emperor Marcus Julius Philippus to send a pointed message to Washington, noting that when Rome marched east against Persia, it was the emperor who was forced to make peace “on Sasanian terms”.
The remarks are characteristic of Baghaei, a Tehran University PhD, who has made a habit of reaching for history and literature to frame Iran’s standoffs with the US.
In a recent Al Jazeera opinion article, he cited the 12th-century Persian poet Farid al-Din Attar, and said that a civilisation that “plays fast and loose with its principles” is a dying one.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/5/23/iran-war-live-tehran-says-diplomacy-continues-but-no-deal-yet-with-us?update=4596838
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