Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down ...

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Accept Iran’s rights or face repeated military defeats: Defense Ministry
Tuesday, 12 May 2026 3:45 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 12 May 2026 3:45 PM ]
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/1 ... tes-israel


Brigadier General Reza Talaei-nik, the spokesman for Iran's Defense Ministry

Iran’s Defense Ministry says the American-Zionist enemy must accept the legitimate and definitive rights of the Iranian nation, or expect to suffer repeated defeats both on the diplomatic front and on the battlefield.

Defense Ministry Spokesman Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik made the remarks on Tuesday in Tehran.

“Without securing these reasonable and definitive rights, the enemy will not be able to extricate itself from the quagmire in which it is trapped,” Talaei-Nik said.

He said Iran, backed by the field presence of its people, has demonstrated high capacity in both combat and diplomacy.

“If the enemy does not yield to Iran’s rightful demands in diplomacy, it should expect a repeat of its past defeats on the military field.”

Talaei-Nik said the repeatability of enemy defeats is predictable given the realities in the region, and that the Iranian nation, considering past trends, will be the ultimate victor of this imposed war.

He also said any new threat, aggression or violation by the enemy will be met with a decisive, final and regretful response


Trump's theatrical rejection of Iranian proposal reeks of desperation as Iran's leverage grows

“The repeated fleeing of US ships and naval vessels from the conflict zone shows the determination and capability of our country’s armed forces, both the IRGC and the Army, and they are fully prepared to give a regretful response to any aggression.”

The United States and Israel launched their illegal, unprovoked war of aggression against Iran on February 28, assassinating Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and striking nuclear facilities, schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure.

Iran’s armed forces responded with at least 100 waves of decisive retaliatory strikes under Operation True Promise 4, launching hundreds of ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as drones, against American military bases across West Asia and Israeli positions throughout the occupied territories.

A fragile Pakistan‑brokered ceasefire has been in place since early April, but a US naval blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect.

Tehran says it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the blockade is lifted and the war permanently ends.

Iranian officials have warned that any new aggression will be met with a far more devastating response than before.

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Trump's theatrical rejection of Iranian proposal reeks of desperation as Iran's leverage grows
by Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk
Tuesday, 12 May 2026 12:56 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 12 May 2026 12:56 PM ]
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/1 ... rage-grows



The exchange of proposals between Iran and the United States, facilitated through Pakistani mediators in recent days, on ending the third war of aggression has crossed into a moment of strategic reckoning.

Far from constituting a routine diplomatic impasse, the American response – specifically President Donald Trump's theatrical rejection of Iran's latest proposal – confirms an undeniable strategic reality: the White House is not operating from a position of strength.

Trump's subsequent sabre-rattling has once again laid bare the frustration and desperation festering on the American side. Such unhinged behavior is the reflex of a leader trapped at a strategic dead end, something even Western pundits now candidly acknowledge.

His refusal to accept Iran's terms, therefore, signals a simple but telling reality: he has run out of moves. What stands before him is an Iranian stance not defined by obstinacy but by the strategic leverage Tehran has accumulated through significant gains on both the battlefield and the negotiating table. And that leverage is proving unbreakable.

This dynamic places the United States in an increasingly vulnerable position. At the same time, Iran's leverage continues to grow, while its armed forces maintain a state of readiness for any eventuality. The asymmetry in strategic composure is becoming unmistakable.

The chaos of a cornered administration

Following Iran’s formal response to the American plan for ending the war that was imposed amid nuclear talks on February 28 – a response that firmly reiterated Tehran’s uncompromising principles – Trump’s public and private statements have devolved into a turbulent mix of incoherence and delusion.

Over the past forty-eight hours, the tapestry of American positions, as leaked to American, Zionist, and Western media, reveals a ruling establishment in complete disarray.

We have witnessed simultaneous threats to resume the military aggression, outright rejections of Iran’s conditions, frantic internal consultations, and desperate outreach to Zionist allies. Importantly, Trump has been spreading contradictory narratives, even claiming contact with Iranian officials, a claim that reeks of wishful thinking.

This confusion is not a strategic move but the noise of a befuddled man realizing that his “maximum pressure” campaign to get maximum concessions has failed. Trump has not yet accepted the simple truth that he has lost the war against Iran.

Fed a diet of false intelligence and sycophantic reports, he genuinely believes he still holds the upper hand in this war. He imagines he can dictate terms from a higher position, behaving in a domineering and condescending manner. But this is a dangerous self-delusion.

The aggression in his tone is inversely proportional to the options remaining on his desk.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/11/768433/with-iran-armed-forces-peak-readiness-red-lines-locked-trump-walks-ring-fire
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Analysis - With Iran's armed forces at peak readiness and red lines locked, Trump walks into a ring of fire

By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/1 ... -ring-fire

From presstv.ir
5:34 AM · May 11, 2026

Psychological warfare or confession of failure?

Some analysts might argue that Trump’s belligerent posture is a calculated tactic – a piece of psychological theater designed to frighten Iran into submission.

According to this view, the threats are meant to force Tehran into accepting American conditions: surrendering its stockpile of 60-percent-enriched uranium and, most critically, opening the Strait of Hormuz. If this is indeed a performance, it is a desperate one.

Trump understands – even if he will not say so publicly – that he has failed and exhausted his options. Not a single war objective has been realized. The Islamic Republic of Iran stands tall and unyielding, while the "regime change" plot has been nipped in the bud.

Now, he is resorting to his only remaining and ineffective tool: verbal psychological operations. He specializes in this – bluster, threats, and feigned dominance. But Iran is not intimidated. It sees the man behind the curtain, a frustrated figure trying to impose a surrender document that has no basis in military reality. His rejection of Iran’s proposal stems from the agony of a gambler who cannot accept that the game is over.

Iran’s unshakable stance

Why is Trump so desperate and frustrated? The answer is simple: Iran neither negotiates from fear nor offers concessions to the aggressor. On the contrary, it negotiates from a position of strength and authority. It has laid out its conditions with clinical clarity and refused to retreat a single inch.

These conditions include the absolute, non-negotiable sovereignty of Iran over the Strait of Hormuz. They include demands for full war reparations and compensation, the release of all blocked Iranian assets, the complete lifting of illegal and draconian sanctions, and the annulment of international anti-Iran resolutions.

Also, Iran has made clear that any end to the war must explicitly include the resistance axis, particularly Lebanon, and a definitive end to the American-led naval blockade.

This is the language of a victor outlining terms and conditions. And it has had a discernible effect on Trump and his close circle of hawks who pushed him into this quagmire.

His unhinged outbursts and uncouth language are the last gasp of a bully who has met an immovable object. By rejecting Iran’s fair proposal, Trump is hoping to mask his own failure. But Iran’s insistence on these principles tells the world that it will not enter America’s psychological maze. Tehran will not be intimidated by insults or theatrical threats.

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Analysis - Trump's deadly trap: By rejecting Iran's proposal, US enters a strategic nightmare with no escape

By Press TV Strategic Analysis

https://presstv.ir/Detail/2026/05/11/76 ... -no-escape

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HIBCgaeXAAA ... me=900x900
11:51 PM · May 10, 2026

Good faith, not weakness

It is essential to understand the nature of Iran’s diplomatic engagement. Over several weeks, Tehran has acted in good faith, exchanging modified plans to end the unprovoked war.

Some in the West might misinterpret this as a sign of fear. It is not. Iran’s willingness to talk means there will be no room for any excuses that it did not negotiate. It is a demonstration to the global public that Iran is the party genuinely seeking peace, while Washington remains addicted to war and economic coercion.

Iran has shown remarkable patience. And now, that patience has transformed into decisive clarity. By rejecting the proposal, Trump has proven to the world that he is not interested in a just and fair peace, only in a humiliating surrender that will never come.

This decisiveness forces the American side to confront an uncomfortable truth: the defeated party must behave realistically and pragmatically. America has tried the path of war and pressure, and both failed. The only way forward is for Washington to recognize Iran’s rightful conditions. But Trump, blinded by desperation, seems incapable of that recognition.

Geopolitical earthquake: The China factor

Compounding America's weakness is the timing. As Trump prepares to embark on his high-stakes visit to China, he does so as a supplicant – not a rival.

Washington has proven incapable of altering the war equation or tilting the diplomatic landscape in its favor. Consequently, it finds itself in an abysmal position opposite its most powerful global competitor. The inevitable outcome is the further consolidation of China's superpower status – not despite Iran, but as Iran's great economic partner.

China, like Russia before it, has fully grasped the value of partnering with a powerful, independent Iran that refuses to be bullied by any global hegemon – as proven in the past 72 days. Beijing recognizes Iran as a strategic anchor in West Asia.

When Trump arrives in China, he will be treated not as a triumphant victor, but as a failed actor still pretending to have won. This is the new reality. America's inability to break Iran has directly accelerated the rise of a multipolar order, one in which Washington's veto carries less weight by the day. Iran's growing leverage is now China's gain.

Press TV
@PressTV
Analysis: Decisive edge: Iran dismantles US levers of coercion, rewrites equation of deterrence

By Press TV Strategic Analysis Desk

From presstv.ir
https://t.co/TyeygjwZli
6:54 AM · May 10, 2026

On the water: Military readiness and calm

The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran recently issued a clear warning to the enemy following the new cases of American maritime banditry in the Strait of Hormuz.

The enemy attempted to move its vessels through the strait and failed. More critically, when the US Navy tried to harass Iranian vessels and disrupt Iranian interests, Iran warned that any new act of aggression would be met with direct strikes on American centers.

The result has been remarkable. Instead of escalation, we have witnessed a significant, meaningful calm in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

In recent days, there have been no reports of American maritime banditry and piracy or harassment of Iranian vessels in international waters. It is the product of Iranian military readiness and American risk aversion.

Trump may threaten war from the safety of the Oval Office, but his commanders know the cost. The calm on the water is a testament to whose navy holds the balance of resolve.

His rejection of Iran’s pragmatic and fair proposal to end the third imposed war is a strategic error born of desperation. He is frustrated by Iran’s growing strength, leverage and steadfastness, and confused by his own failing intelligence.

As Iran’s leverage grows, the United States finds itself in a position of historic weakness.

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Alexander the not so Great: History through Persian eyes
by Prof Ali Ansari
Institute of Iranian Studies, St Andrews University
BBC News
Published 15 July 2012
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18803290

Eastern territories of the Achaemenid Empire, including Arachosia.


Arachosian soldier of the Achaemenid army, circa 470 BCE, Xerxes I tomb.


Arachosian priests of Zoroastrianism carrying various gifts and animals for a ritual of sacrifice at Persepolis

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Persepolis,_capital_of_Persia_(TerraX,_English_redub).webm
Animated reconstruction of Persepolis

Arghandab River Valley between Kandahar and Lashkargah


The ancient Arachosia and the Pactyan people during 500 BC.

Arachosia is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy in the eastern part of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Greco-Bactrian, and Indo-Scythian empires. Arachosia was centred on the Arghandab valley in modern-day southern Afghanistan, although its influence extended east to as far as the Indus River. The main river of Arachosia was called Arachōtós, now known as the Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River ... Arachosia was a part of the region of ancient Ariana....

In Old Persian inscriptions, the region is referred to as Harauvati. This form is the "etymological equivalent" of Vedic Sanskrit Sarasvati, the name of a river literally meaning "rich in waters/lakes"....

Arachosia bordered Drangiana to the west, Paropamisadae (i.e. Gandahara) to the north (a part of ancient India (present day Pakistan) to the east), and Gedrosia (or Dexendrusi) to the south. Isidore and Ptolemy (6.20.4-5) each provide a list of cities in Arachosia, among them (yet another) Alexandria, which lay on the river Arachotus. This city is frequently mis-identified with present-day Kandahar in Afghanistan....

In his list, Ptolemy also refers to a city named Arachotus, or Arachoti (acc. to Strabo), which was the earlier capital of the land....

The inhabitants of Arachosia were Iranian peoples, referred to as Arachosians or Arachoti. They were called Pactyans by ethnicity, and that name may have been in reference to the present-day ethnic Pashtun tribes.

Isidorus of Charax in his 1st century CE "Parthian stations" itinerary described an "Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia", which he said was still Greek even at such a late time....


According to Arrian, Megasthenes lived in Arachosia and travelled to Pataliputra, to the court of Chandragupta Maurya.

The region is first referred to in the Achaemenid-era Elamite Persepolis fortification tablets.

With over 2100 texts published, the Persepolis Fortification Texts in Elamite, transcribed, interpreted, and edited by the late Richard Hallock, already form the largest coherent body of material on Persian administration available to us; a comparable, but less legible, body of material remains unpublished, as does the smaller group of Aramaic texts from the same archive. Essentially, they deal with the movement and expenditure of food commodities in the region of Persepolis in the fifteen years down to 493. Firstly, they make it absolutely clear that everyone in the state sphere of the Persian economy was on a fixed ration-scale, or rather, since some of the rations are on a scale impossible for an individual to consume, a fixed salary expressed in terms of commodities. The payment of rations is very highly organized. Travelers along the road carried sealed documents issued by the king or officials of satrapal level stating the scale on which they were entitled to be fed. Tablets sealed by supplier and recipient went back to Persepolis as a record of the transaction. Apart from a few places in Babylonia for short periods, Persepolis is now the best-documented area in the Achaemenid empire.

-- Persepolis Fortification Tablets, by R. T. Hallock, 1969

Elamite, also known as Hatamtite, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in present-day southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record after Alexander the Great entered Iran. Elamite is generally thought to have no demonstrable relatives and is usually considered a language isolate. The lack of established relatives makes its interpretation difficult.

Proto-Elamite is the oldest known writing system from Iran. It was used during a brief period of time (c. 3100–2900 BC); clay tablets with Proto-Elamite writing have been found at different sites across Iran. It is thought to have developed from early cuneiform (proto-cuneiform) and consists of more than 1,000 signs. It is thought to be largely logographic....

The Elamite language may have remained in widespread use after the Achaemenid period. Several rulers of Elymais bore the Elamite name Kamnaskires in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The Acts of the Apostles (c. 80–90 AD) mentions the language as if it was still current. There are no later direct references, but Elamite may be the local language in which, according to the Talmud, the Book of Esther was recited annually to the Jews of Susa in the Sasanian period (224–642 AD)....

-- Elamite language, by Wikipedia

It appears again in the Old Persian, Akkadian and Aramaic inscriptions of Darius I [550 B.C.–486 B.C.] and Xerxes I [518 B.C.–August 465 BC] among lists of subject peoples and countries.

The scribes of the Neo-Assyrian bureaucracy had also used Aramaic, and this practice was subsequently inherited by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC), and later by the Achaemenid Empire (539–330 BC). Mediated by scribes that had been trained in the language, highly standardized written Aramaic (named by scholars as Imperial Aramaic) progressively also become the lingua franca of public life, trade and commerce throughout the Achaemenid territories. Wide use of written Aramaic subsequently led to the adoption of the Aramaic alphabet and (as logograms) some Aramaic vocabulary in the Pahlavi scripts, which were used by several Middle Iranian languages (including Parthian, Middle Persian, Sogdian, and Khwarazmian).

-- Aramaic, by Wikipedia

The Aramaic inscription of Laghman, also called the Laghman I inscription to differentiate from the Laghman II inscription discovered later, is an inscription on a slab of natural rock in the area of Laghmân, Afghanistan.... Since Aramaic was an official language of the Achaemenid Empire, and reverted to being just its vernacular tongue in 320 BCE with the conquests of Alexander the Great, it seems that this inscription was addressed directly to the populations of this ancient empire still present in this area, or to border populations for whom Aramaic remained the language used in everyday life....

In 1915, Sir John Marshall had discovered the Aramaic Inscription of Taxila,

Aramaic inscription of Taxila.

The Aramaic Inscription of Taxila 'is an inscription on a piece of marble, originally belonging to an octagonal column, discovered by Sir John Marshall in 1915 at Taxila, British India.

-- Aramaic Inscription of Taxila, by Wikipedia

followed in 1932 by the Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription.

The Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription, also called Aramaic inscription of Lampaka, is an inscription on a rock in the valley of Laghman ("Lampaka" being the transcription in Sanskrit of "Laghman"), Afghanistan.

-- Pul-i-Darunteh Aramaic inscription, by Wikipedia

In 1958 the famous Bilingual Kandahar Inscription, written in Greek and Aramaic was discovered,

... This bilingual edict was found on a rock on the mountainside of Chehel Zina (also Chilzina, or Chil Zena, "Forty Steps"), which forms the western natural bastion of ancient Alexandria Arachosia and present Kandahar's Old City.

The Edict is still in place on the mountainside. According to Scerrato, "the block lies at the eastern base of the little saddle between the two craggy hills below the peak on which the celebrated Cehel Zina of Babur are cut". A cast is visible in Kabul Museum. [T]he Edict.. advocates the adoption of "Piety" (using the Greek term Eusebeia for "Dharma") to the Greek community....

According to Sircar, the usage of Greek in the Edict indeed means that the message was intended for the Greeks living in Kandahar, while the usage of Aramaic was intended for the Iranian populations of the Kambojas....

At Alexandria-in-Arachosia (mod. Kandahar) a bilingual Greek-Aramaic text, urging vegetarianism and filial piety, was cut into the cliff face by the side of the main trade road. The inscription demonstrates a keen awareness of the culturally specific traditions and languages of the region's "Yona and Kamboja" (Greek and Persian) populations: the Greek version combines vocabulary appropriate to oracular pronouncement and contemporary philosophy, while the Aramaic version, heavily influenced by Old Persian, assimilates dhamma to Zoroastrian truth.

-- Chapter 1: India – Diplomacy and Ethnography at the Mauryan Empire, Excerpt from "The Land of the Elephant Kings: Space, Territory, and Ideology in the Seleucid Empire", by Paul J. Kosmin, 2014

English (translation of the Greek)

Ten years (of reign) having been completed, King Piodasses made known (the doctrine of) Piety (εὐσέβεια, Eusebeia) to men; and from this moment he has made men more pious, and everything thrives throughout the whole world. And the king abstains from (killing) living beings, and other men and those who (are) huntsmen and fishermen of the king have desisted from hunting. And if some (were) intemperate, they have ceased from their intemperance as was in their power; and obedient to their father and mother and to the elders, in opposition to the past also in the future, by so acting on every occasion, they will live better and more happily."...

-- Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, by Wikipedia

In the same year 1963 and again in Kandahar, an inscription in "Indo-Aramaic" known as the Kandahar Aramaic inscription or Kandahar II was found, in which the Indian Prakrit language and the Aramaic language alternate, but using only the Aramaic script....

-- Aramaic Inscription of Laghman, by Wikipedia

Alexander the Great in Arachosia, 329 BCE.

The chronologically next reference to Arachosia comes from the Greeks and Romans, who record that under Darius III the Arachosians and Drangians were under the command of a governor who, together with the army of the Bactrian governor, contrived a plot of the Arachosians against Alexander (Curtius Rufus 8.13.3). Following Alexander's conquest of the Achaemenids, the Macedonian appointed his generals as governors (Arrian 3.28.1, 5.6.2; Curtius Rufus 7.3.5; Plutarch, Eumenes 19.3; Polyaenus 4.6.15; Diodorus 18.3.3; Orosius 3.23.1 3; Justin 13.4.22).

-- Arachosia, by Wikipedia

Circa 330 BC, Alexander the Great King of Macedonia, on his horse Boucephalus

Alexander the Great is portrayed as a legendary conqueror and military leader in Greek-influenced Western history books but his legacy looks very different from a Persian perspective.

Any visitor to the spectacular ruins of Persepolis - the site of the ceremonial capital of the ancient Persian Achaemenid empire, will be told three facts: it was built by Darius the Great, embellished by his son Xerxes, and destroyed by Alexander.

That man Alexander, would be the Alexander the Great, feted in Western culture as the conqueror of the Persian Empire and one of the great military geniuses of history.

Indeed, reading some Western history books one might be forgiven for thinking that the Persians existed to be conquered by Alexander.

A more inquisitive mind might discover that the Persians had twice before been defeated by the Greeks during two ill-fated invasions of Greece, by Darius the Great in 490BC and then his son, Xerxes, in 480BC - for which Alexander's assault was a justified retaliation.


Alexander the Great razed the ancient city of Persepolis

But seen through Persian eyes, Alexander is far from "Great".

He razed Persepolis to the ground following a night of drunken excess at the goading of a Greek courtesan, ostensibly in revenge for the burning of the Acropolis by the Persian ruler Xerxes.

Persians also condemn him for the widespread destruction he is thought to have encouraged to cultural and religious sites throughout the empire.

The emblems of Zoroastrianism - the ancient religion of the Iranians - were attacked and destroyed. For the Zoroastrian priesthood in particular - the Magi - the destruction of their temples was nothing short of a calamity.

The influence of Greek language and culture has helped establish a narrative in the West that Alexander's invasion was the first of many Western crusades to bring civilisation and culture to the barbaric East.

But in fact the Persian Empire was worth conquering not because it was in need of civilising but because it was the greatest empire the world had yet seen, extending from Central Asia to Libya.

Persia was an enormously rich prize.

Look closely and you will find ample evidence that the Greeks admired the Persian Empire and the emperors who ruled it.

Much like the barbarians who conquered Rome, Alexander came to admire what he found, so much so that he was keen to take on the Persian mantle of the King of Kings.

And Greek admiration for the Persians goes back much earlier than this.

Xenophon, the Athenian general and writer, wrote a paean to Cyrus the Great - the Cyropaedia - showering praise on the ruler who showed that the government of men over a vast territory could be achieved by dint of character and force of personality:

"Cyrus was able to penetrate that vast extent of country by the sheer terror of his personality that the inhabitants were prostrate before him…," wrote Xenophon, "and yet he was able at the same time, to inspire them all with so deep a desire to please him and win his favour that all they asked was to be guided by his judgment and his alone.

"Thus he knit to himself a complex of nationalities so vast that it would have taxed a man's endurance merely to traverse his empire in any one direction."

Later Persian emperors Darius and Xerxes both invaded Greece, and were both ultimately defeated. But, remarkably, Greeks flocked to the Persian court.

The most notable was Themistocles, who fought against Darius's invading army at Marathon and masterminded the Athenian victory against Xerxes at Salamis.

Falling foul of Athenian politics, he fled to the Persian Empire and eventually found employment at the Persian Court and was made a provincial governor, where he lived out the rest of his life.

In time, the Persians found that they could achieve their objectives in Greece by playing the Greek city states against each other, and in the Peloponnesian War, Persian money financed the Spartan victory against Athens.


Achaemenid soldiers, seen in wall-carvings in Persepolis

The key figure in this strategy was the Persian prince and governor of Asia Minor, Cyrus the Younger, who over a number of years developed a good relationship with his Greek interlocutors such that when he decided to make his fateful bid for the throne, he was able to easily recruit some 10,000 Greek mercenaries.

Unfortunately for him, he died in the attempt.

Soldier, historian and philosopher Xenophon was among those recruited, and he was full of praise for the prince of whom he said: "Of all the Persians who lived after Cyrus the Great, he was most like a king and the most deserving of an empire."

There is a wonderful account provided by Lysander, a Spartan general, who happened to visit Cyrus the Younger in the provincial capital at Sardis.

Lysander recounts how Cyrus treated him graciously and was particularly keen to show him his walled garden - the origin of our word paradise - where Lysander congratulated the prince on the beautiful design.

When, he added, that he ought to thank the slave who had done the work and laid out the plans, Cyrus smiled and pointed out that he had laid out the design and even planted some of the trees.

On seeing the Spartan's reaction he added: "I swear to you by Mithras that, my health permitting, I never ate without having first worked up a sweat by undertaking some activity relevant either to the art of war or to agriculture, or by stretching myself in some other way."

Astonished, Lysander applauded Cyrus and said: "You deserve your good fortune Cyrus - you have it because you are a good man."

Alexander would have been familiar with stories such as these. The Persian Empire was not something to be conquered as much as an achievement to be acquired.

Although Alexander is characterised by the Persians as a destroyer, a reckless and somewhat feckless youth, the evidence suggests that he retained a healthy respect for the Persians themselves.

Alexander came to regret the destruction his invasion caused. Coming across the plundered tomb of Cyrus the Great in Pasargad, a little north of Persepolis, he was much distressed by what he found and immediately ordered repairs to be made.

Had he lived beyond his 32 years, he may yet have restored and repaired much more. In time, the Persians were to come to terms with their Macedonian conqueror, absorbing him, as other conquerors after him, into the fabric of national history.

And thus it is that in the great Iranian national epic, the Shahnameh, written in the 10th Century AD, Alexander is no longer a wholly foreign prince but one born of a Persian father.

It is a myth, but one that perhaps betrays more truth than the appearance of history may like to reveal.

Like other conquerors who followed in his footsteps even the great Alexander came to be seduced and absorbed into the idea of Iran.

Ali Ansari is a professor in modern history and director of The Institute of Iranian Studies at The University of St Andrews, Scotland.

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Trump’s worst fears come true as Iran threatens to obtain nuclear weapons | Janta Ka Reporter
by Rifat Jawaid
Janta Ka Reporter
May 12, 2026

A prominent Iranian lawmaker on Tuesday said that his country would increase the uranium enrichment to 90% if the US attacks the Islamic Republic again. Iran needs to take enrichment level from the current 60% to the 90% threshold for weapons-grade material. This would cause immense concern in the US administration as this is the first time Iran has publicly stated its ambition to go nuclear. Rifat Jawaid examines the significance of this development