“They must eat in the end.” Iran responds to the “threat” of the American Secretary of State

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio “threatened to starve Iranians by imposing a blockade on them,” accusing the United States of committing “war crimes.”

Rubio made statements about Iran during a press briefing on Friday, and said that Tehran “very much wants to reach an agreement, but the problem lies in the conditions it continues to put forward, and they are ridiculous conditions.”

He pointed out that these conditions may change, "in the end one must eat, and be able to pay the salaries of his fighters and security forces... In the end, economic realities will find their way into the mind of the most insane extremists. So I believe that the passage of time will leave its mark in this regard."

Baghaei responded, via his account on the

He continued: "This is an additional admission that Washington is committing war crimes, thereby accumulating new atrocities on top of those it has already committed in its wars of aggression and practices of economic terrorism against Iran."

US President Donald Trump had hinted that the United States could subjugate Iran within a few days by attacking its energy infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities, something observers said could amount to a war crime if those targets were used for civilian purposes only.

In an interview with Stephen A. Smith, Trump said: “We did not attack their energy sector. If I wanted to eliminate them, I could destroy their energy sector in one day, destroy their bridges in one day, and eliminate their manufacturing capabilities in one day. It would only take me 3 days, one day for each.”

Trump's comments, published on Friday, came days after he told CNN that it was "highly unlikely" that he would have to order the United States back to war with Iran, as long as progress continued in negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

CNN had previously reported that US Central Command and Pentagon leaders were working on preparing a broad list of targets, including Iran's energy infrastructure, military sites, and nuclear facilities.