Iran says US is threatening to starve civilians as Rubio touts sanctions

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei accused the United States on Saturday of threatening to starve Iranian civilians through its blockade, according to Breaking The News. His statement came directly in response to remarks by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Baghaei pointed to Rubio's line that Iranians 'have to eat eventually,' framing it as a threat against ordinary people. He said Washington was 'pursuing war crimes' and pressing ahead with what he called a policy of 'economic terrorism against Iran.'

'After decades of failed coercion, threats, sanctions, terrorism, and aggression, the United States continues to repeat the same mistakes, merely repackaging them under new names,' Baghaei said.

Rubio's original comments cast large-scale military action against Iran as unnecessary for now, arguing that economic sanctions were already 'devastating' for the country's economy. That framing set off the exchange, with Tehran rejecting the pressure campaign as a repeat of tactics it says have already failed.