Washington [US], November 10 : Reacting to France formally accusing Iran of executing an "unprecedented" cyberattack on its supermarket refrigeration systems, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio sharply condemned Tehran, terming the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a "deranged group of revolutionaries" engaged in global sabotage.
Addressing the media, Rubio asserted that the targeting of French retail networks did not come as a surprise given the regime's record, noting that France had been targeted despite not being directly involved in the current conflict.
"The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) has been conducting acts of terrorism and sabotage around the world for a long time... The IRGC is a bad group of people. That is why we sanction them. That is why we consider them terrorists... France is not even involved in this, yet they got attacked nonetheless," Rubio said.
Drawing a clear distinction between the Iranian public and the ruling establishment in Tehran, the US Secretary of State lauded the Iranian people while describing the leadership as an extremist fringe.
"You are dealing with a deranged group of revolutionaries. The Iranian people are great. Go back to my hearing when I was being nominated Secretary of State and I talked about how great Iran is and how great its people are and how different the Iranian people are from the small core of violent maniacs that govern them," he stated.
"They do terrible things around the world. They have been doing terrible things since 1979, so it doesn't surprise us," Rubio added.
Rubio’s remarks come after French authorities formally accused Iran of orchestrating an "unprecedented" cyberattack campaign targeting supermarket refrigeration networks across the country, pledging to push for European Union sanctions against Tehran, CNN reported on Monday.
The cyber operation, which took place last month, targeted around 700 retail locations—including major chains like Intermarché, Coopérative U, and E. Leclerc—resulting in massive food spoilage and equipment fires after hackers deliberately caused commercial cooling units to defrost.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot condemned the incident as an act of "unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness," describing it as the first large-scale act of cyber sabotage carried out on French soil, according to CNN.
Characterising the disruption as a direct threat to “the nation’s interests and the security of the French people,” Barrot confirmed that the French government had summoned the Iranian ambassador and is actively pursuing punitive diplomatic measures alongside its European partners.
Tehran has yet to issue an official response to the claims.
According to CNN, the Paris prosecutor’s office initiated a formal inquiry after uncovering digital footprints leading directly to Iran, including “the use of Farsi and IP addresses pointing to devices located in Iran.”
French judicial authorities have focused their investigation on the leadership of Shahid Kaveh—a cyber unit tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—specifically targeting the unit's head, two of his deputies, and associated operatives.
The French revelations follow a pattern of similar, unexplained cyber disruptions that hit food retailers in Ireland, Belgium, and Sweden earlier this month, though investigators have not confirmed whether those incidents are connected to the breach in France, CNN reported.
CNN also reported that following joint US and Israeli military strikes on Iran earlier in the year, American intelligence agencies had circulated confidential alerts advising government departments and private sector firms to bolster their defences against potential Iranian retaliatory cyber operations.