Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force commander Seyed Majid Moosavi fired back at US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's 'Back to the Stone Age' barb on Thursday, and said: "...with your paltry 250-year history, you threaten a civilisation over 6,000 years old."
Hegseth was reiterating US President Donald Trump's remark during the latter's address to the nation, where he stated that Iran would be hit so hard that it would go "back to the Stone Age".
What did Trump say exactly? While delivering his address to the nation, Trump said that Iran would be hit "extremely hard" amid ongoing diplomatic talks between the two sides in order to sign a deal to end the conflict, which has been going on for over a month.
"We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing," the US President said.
"Tonight, every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the spectre of nuclear blackmail. Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran's sinister threat to America and the world," he added.
Iran fires back Pete Hegseth drew sharp criticism from Iran as he reiterated Trumps' "stone age" remark in a post on X.
Sayyid Hossein Mousavi, an Iranian military commander, reposted Hegseth's remark while lashing out at him, saying, “It is you who are taking your soldiers to their graves, not Iran, whom you seek to drag back to the Stone Age.”
"Hollywood delusions have so poisoned your minds that, with your paltry 250-year history, you threaten a civilisation over 6,000 years old," Mousavi wrote.
Earlier in the day, the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mumbai shared a screengrab of Hegseth's "stone age" remark, and questioned Washington's agenda over their military action against the Islamic Republic.
The consulate noted that earlier the US' stance was to make Iran "Great Again", which now shifted. It stated that civilisations that originated since the Achaemenid Empire back in 550 BC, are already great.
"They said Iran needed to be 'Great Again.' Now suddenly the goalpost is... the Stone Age? Funny thing... civilisations that go back to empires like the Achaemenids don't really do 'again.' They just are," the consulate stated in the post.
The statement underscores Tehran's rejection of Washington's aggressive rhetoric while highlighting Iran's historical and cultural heritage that spans back to one of the world's earliest empires.
US-Iran war This development comes as diplomatic engagements between Washington and Tehran continue amid the conflict in West Asia, following US-Israel joint military strikes on Iran on February 28.
The strikes led to the death of 86-year-old Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after which Tehran, in retaliation, targeted Israel and US assets in several Gulf countries, causing disruption in the waterways and affecting international energy markets and global economic stability.