Iran
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei says the United States has openly acknowledged its pursuit of war crimes by threatening to starve the Iranian people through a blockade. In a post on his X account on Saturday, Baqaei cited a remark by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said that Iranians would eventually have to eat, describing it as an open and insolent threat to starve the Iranian people through a blockade. “They have to eat eventually,” the U.S. Secretary of State has declared - openly and insolently threatening to starve Iranians through a blockade.
This is yet another admission that Washington is pursuing war crimes, compounding the atrocities it has already committed in its wars… — Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) November 14, 2026 “This is yet another admission that Washington is pursuing war crimes, compounding the atrocities it has already committed in its wars of aggression and economic terrorism against Iran,” he added. Despite decades of failed attempts to force Iran into submission through coercion, threats, sanctions, terrorism and aggression, the United States continues to repeat the same mistakes, merely presenting its policies “under new names,” he emphasized.
The Iranian spokesperson described Washington’s approach as a textbook example of what historian Barbara Tuchman called a March of Folly, in which governments persist with disastrous policies, refuse to learn from past failures and become increasingly entrenched in their mistakes with each successive defeat. Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding in June to end the cycle arising from the latest bout of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic, which had begun on February 28.
However, the US attempted to undermine Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz by establishing an unsafe corridor near the Omani shores. The US also resumed its aerial assaults on Iran and imposed a naval blockade of the country in violation of the war-ending deal. On August 24, the United States unveiled the new wave of illegal sanctions against Iran under the so-called “Operation Economic Outcast,” threatening secondary penalties against any country or entity maintaining trade ties with Tehran in a failed attempt to achieve through economic coercion what its military aggression could not.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measures target Iran’s financial networks worldwide and warned that no partner is beyond Washington’s reach. A New York Times report has recently revealed that US attempts to tighten the blockade of Iran by closing its land routes have failed as neighboring countries are reluctant to follow Washington’s orders. According to the outlet, US officials have tried and failed to diplomatically pressure Iran’s neighbors into shuttering their border crossings.
It says those neighboring countries, primarily Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan, are increasingly wary and disgruntled by US policies they say could hurt them as much as Tehran.
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