US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks reshaped US foreign policy, the anniversary has triggered a fresh confrontation between Washington and Tehran. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has accused the US of using the memory of the 2001 attacks to defend its ongoing military campaign against Iran, directly challenging remarks made by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at a Pentagon memorial ceremony.
Baghaei’s response came on Friday after Hegseth connected the US military’s current campaign against Iran with Washington’s decades-long fight against terrorism. The Iranian spokesperson rejected any link between Tehran and the September 11 attacks and argued that the anniversary should not become a justification for the present conflict.
The exchange adds another layer to the already intense US-Iran confrontation, which began more than six months ago and has involved attacks on Iranian military infrastructure, pressure on Tehran and a continuing dispute over the Strait of Hormuz. Recent US statements have portrayed the campaign as part of a broader effort to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and to confront what Washington calls state-sponsored terrorism.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: Baghaei Accuses US of ‘Fundamental Contradictions’
Baghaei strongly criticised Hegseth’s decision to invoke the 9/11 attacks while discussing the Iran war. In a post on X, he questioned Washington’s position on terrorism and argued that the US could not present itself as the sole authority on which forms of violence were legitimate.
“The narrative advanced by the US Secretary of War on the anniversary of 9/11 is riddled with fundamental contradictions, you cannot wage aggression, carry out cowardly assassinations, and inflict civilian casualties while simultaneously claiming exclusive authority to define terrorism and determine whose violence is legitimate,” Baghaei stated in a post on X.
The narrative advanced by the U.S. Secretary of War on the anniversary of 9/11 is riddled with fundamental contradictions: you cannot wage aggression, carry out cowardly assassinations, and inflict civilian casualties while simultaneously claiming exclusive authority to define… pic.twitter.com/a9fyALL9mC
— Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) September 11, 2026
The Iranian official’s comments came as US leaders used the 25th anniversary of 9/11 to reflect on the attacks while also drawing connections between the post-2001 “war on terror” and the current confrontation with Iran. President Donald Trump also linked the current fight to the broader US struggle against terrorism during the Pentagon ceremony.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: Iran Says 9/11 Attackers ‘Were Not Iranians’
A central part of Baghaei’s response focused on the identity of the people responsible for the September 11 attacks.
He insisted that Iran had no role in the attacks and rejected any attempt to associate the perpetrators with Tehran. Baghaei instead pointed to the US relationship with militant groups in previous decades while criticising the consequences of Washington’s post-9/11 military campaigns.
“The perpetrators of 9/11 were not Iranians; they were the very same people whom the US itself had armed, organised, or otherwise cultivated in the preceding decades. Yet the so-called “war on terror” that followed brought Afghanistan and Iraq years of war, occupation, civilian deaths, and devastation on a massive scale,” Baghaei wrote.
Official US accounts identify al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden as responsible for planning and directing the 2001 attacks. The attacks killed 2,977 people, according to US government figures.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: Baghaei Calls Iran War Justification ‘Utterly Absurd’
Baghaei then shifted his criticism from the history of 9/11 to the present US military campaign.
He argued that Washington could not use the language of counterterrorism to defend attacks against Iranian officials, military targets and civilians. Tehran has repeatedly accused the US and Israel of launching an unlawful campaign against Iran, while Washington has framed its military operation as necessary to counter Iranian threats.
“Against this backdrop, invoking the anniversary of 9/11 to justify a reckless unlawful war against Iran is utterly absurd. A criminal war that has involved the assassination of officials of a sovereign state and the targeting of civilians, including women and children, cannot be made morally coherent simply by wrapping it in the language of counterterrorism,” he added.
The comments came amid continuing disagreement over the progress and objectives of the war. US officials have claimed major damage to Iran’s military capabilities, while Iranian authorities have continued to challenge Washington’s account of the conflict.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: Baghaei Uses ‘Gru’s Plan’ Meme To Mock Washington
Baghaei did not limit his response to an official diplomatic statement.
The Iranian spokesperson also attached the popular four-panel “Gru’s Plan” meme from Despicable Me to his post. The meme is commonly used online to depict a strategy that appears logical at first but ultimately produces an unexpected or self-defeating result.
By using the meme, Baghaei appeared to mock what Tehran considers Washington’s contradictory approach to terrorism, military intervention and the Iran conflict.
The move added a social-media element to an otherwise serious diplomatic dispute and helped frame Tehran’s response as a direct rebuttal of the US narrative surrounding the 9/11 anniversary.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: What Did Pete Hegseth Say About Iran On 9/11?
Hegseth delivered his remarks during a memorial ceremony at the Pentagon, where officials marked 25 years since the September 11 attacks. Instead of restricting his speech to the events of 2001, he connected the anniversary to the ongoing US military campaign against Iran.
“Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism. Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century. That cheered on 911. A regime that has sponsored terrorist attacks against Americans for decades, killing thousands, including our comrades in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Hegseth declared.
Hegseth then highlighted what he described as US military successes against Iran. He claimed Washington had eliminated Iranian leaders, destroyed its air force and naval capabilities, and weakened its air defences.
“But they did not factor in this president. The United States has killed their leaders, destroyed their air force, and their navy rests at the bottom of the sea. Their defenses are gone. We’re still sending terrorists where they belong to hell and tankers to the bottom of the ocean where they belong. And we are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The economic pressure tightens every day. We control the strait. We will finish this fight,” he said.
Hegseth’s remarks closely matched the broader message delivered by Trump at the Pentagon, where the president also presented the Iran campaign as part of the continuing fight against terrorism.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: Hegseth Says US Will Continue The Fight
Hegseth concluded his address by invoking religious language and the actions of passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, who fought back against the hijackers before the plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
“But we also know, as the scripture says, the world will always have war and rumors of war. And so the fight goes on. And so we raise up a new generation of strong, brave warriors who will say, ‘When it matters most, send me.’ or as they said on Flight 93, Todd Beamer’s favorite famous words, ‘Let’s roll’,” he stated.
The reference to Flight 93 recalled one of the defining acts of resistance during the September 11 attacks. Todd Beamer and other passengers attempted to regain control of the hijacked aircraft before it crashed in Pennsylvania, preventing it from reaching its intended target.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: Why Did Hegseth’s 9/11 Speech Trigger Iran’s Anger?
The dispute centres on the way Washington has connected the legacy of 9/11 with the current Iran war.
Traditionally, September 11 memorial ceremonies focus on the victims, survivors, first responders and the events of 2001. But this year’s Pentagon ceremony also became a platform for Trump administration officials to defend the ongoing military campaign against Iran. The Guardian reported that both Trump and Hegseth used the ceremony to link the current conflict to the legacy of the attacks.
That approach has drawn criticism, with some commentators arguing that the anniversary was being used to frame a contemporary military conflict through the emotional and historical weight of 9/11. The Independent similarly described Hegseth’s speech as a rhetorical link between the response to the 2001 attacks and the current war with Iran.
US-Israel-Iran War Latest Live News: 25 Years After 9/11, US-Iran Tensions Remain High
The latest exchange comes as the US-Iran conflict continues to affect the wider Middle East. Washington has maintained that Iran must not acquire a nuclear weapon and has continued economic and military pressure on Tehran.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a major point of tension. The waterway is critical to global energy shipments, and the conflict has already disrupted maritime traffic and contributed to uncertainty in international energy markets. Recent diplomatic efforts have focused on securing commercial shipping through the strait while negotiations over the wider conflict remain difficult.
Against that backdrop, Baghaei’s response shows that the political battle between Washington and Tehran is extending beyond military operations and into the competing narratives each side is building around terrorism, security and the history of the conflict.
The 25th anniversary of 9/11 therefore became more than a day of remembrance in the US-Iran information war. For Tehran, Hegseth’s remarks offered another opportunity to challenge Washington’s justification for the conflict; for the Trump administration, the anniversary provided a platform to portray its campaign against Iran as part of a much longer fight against terrorism.
