Iran invokes history in response to Trump’s deal announcement

Tehran, Iran – Iran and the United States have both turned to historical and geographical references from the Middle East as the world awaits news of a possible agreement to end the 66-day conflict between the two countries.

Iranian officials have revived key moments from the nation’s past, casting them as David-versus-Goliath struggles in which the weaker side eventually prevailed. The move follows President Donald Trump’s statement that a deal with Iran was “largely negotiated,” and Tehran’s own hints that an agreement could soon be reached. Both sides are eager to portray any settlement ending the conflict as a victory.

Historical messages

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei compared the Roman march against Persians in the third century, when the invading force was ultimately forced to “reach an agreement” with the Persians. Baghaei also posted an image of Roman Emperor Valerian captured by Persian King Shapur I in 260 AD. That illustration has been used repeatedly by Iranian authorities in recent months to stir nationalist sentiment and promote the idea that the country is once again bravely standing against an invading force.

Sunday also coincided with the anniversary of a more recent conflict, when Iran—under a new revolutionary government that still exists today—fought an eight-year war with neighboring Iraq from 1980 to 1988. Every year, the Islamic Republic commemorates the recapture of Khorramshahr in 1982, a mostly Arabic-speaking city in Iran’s western Khuzestan province. Khorramshahr marked the turning point for Iran in a lengthy war that killed hundreds of thousands, and the battle was one of the bloodiest. The city has been used in government discourse and messaging during the latest war with the United States and Israel to symbolize the country’s long history of resistance and determination to maintain territorial sovereignty.

Iraqi soldiers guard a dock in occupied Khorramshahr, Iran, Oct. 7, 1980 [AP Photo]

Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ahmad Vahidi, used the battle to signal that Tehran would continue to fight against the United States and Israel in the region. “The liberation of Khorramshahr is a lasting model for victory in future Khorramshahr, and the liberation of Quds Sharif (Jerusalem), and the annihilation of the evil Zionist regime by the axis of resistance and the fighters of the Islamic world,” he said, referring to Israel. Iran’s relatively moderate president, Masoud Pezeshkian, linked the event to the current stalemate. “Iran’s Khorramshahr today is the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” he wrote on X. “Resistance, sacrifice, and fighting aggression are deeply rooted in the culture of this land.”

Preparing for peace

An advisor to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mohammad Mokhber, said both former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and U.S. President Donald Trump failed to fully recognize Iran’s strength at the start of their wars. “The first was buried in the trenches of Khorramshahr, while the second is suffering a political crisis in the swamp created by the Zionist regime,” he wrote on X.

Iranian negotiating team member and Deputy Foreign Minister for International Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, linked the Khorramshahr issue to the United Nations Charter and the country’s current concerns. “Any nation that is a victim of aggression and occupation has the legitimate right to self-defense to protect its territory, independence, and integrity,” he said. Gharibabadi added that Tehran is now following the same logic of “seeking peace combined with strength, diplomacy combined with integrity and firm defense.”

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said the recapture of the city in 1982 showed the new government could defeat aggression in its own way. Tehran now aims to “overcome our savage enemy” by standing firm, he wrote on X.

The latest flurry of messages from leaders in Tehran came after Trump appeared to suggest he wants to control Iran. On his Truth Social account on Saturday, the U.S. president posted a photo of the American flag covering a map of Iran with the question: “United States of the Middle East?” In response, the X accounts of several Iranian embassies abroad posted a map of the U.S. covered in the Islamic Republic flag with the question: “United States of Iran?”

The Trump administration stresses it wants a long-term suspension of uranium enrichment in Iran and removal of high-grade nuclear material from the country. It also wants the Strait of Hormuz—through which one-fifth of the world’s oil usually passes but which Iran has blocked—to be fully opened without any fee to Iran, officials say. Israeli officials have largely remained silent about the U.S. deal with Tehran, but are believed to be pushing for renewed war.