Reacting to “unwise remarks” by American officials about Iran and Persian civilization, Brigadier General Majid Ebn al-Reza said on Monday that those who speak about Iran with “hateful rhetoric full of resentment” either lack knowledge of history or have a flawed and incomplete understanding of strategic issues.

“Such an understanding is a major mistake and an extremely dangerous miscalculation,” he said.

The caretaker defense minister stressed that the greater danger lies not merely in the enemy’s audacity, but in efforts to make historical and cultural differences a basis for political and military confrontation around the world.

“Civilizational confrontation is playing with fire,” he warned, adding that those who ignite such a conflict cannot determine the limits of its expansion or eventual end, nor can they confine its consequences to others.

His remarks came amid reactions across Iran’s political spectrum to a speech by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Athens, where he invoked the ancient Greco-Persian Wars and cited the Persian conquest of Athens in 480 BC under King Xerxes I as an example of Western civilization overcoming an external enemy. Rubio also denounced Iran’s leadership in terms that drew sharp criticism in Tehran.

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf responded by recalling the capture of Roman Emperor Valerian by the forces of Persian King Shapur I in 260 AD. Rezaei warned that anyone invoking history must be prepared for its repetition, while Culture Minister Reza Salehi-Amiri urged Western politicians to address Iran with respect, describing it as a millennia-old civilization and a lasting reality in world history.