US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran is ruled by radical clerics with an "apocalyptic vision of the future," and said the consequences of the regime obtaining a nuclear weapon would be catastrophic for Israel, the United States and the world.
"Oftentimes people make the mistake of equating Iran to a country. It is a country, but the problem with Iran is not the country," Rubio told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "Who calls the shots in Iran are radical Shia clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future."
"People like that can never possess a nuclear weapon, because they will use it to blackmail the world and to kill people," he said.
Rubio said Iran had sought to build a conventional military shield behind which it could break out toward a nuclear weapon, and credited President Donald Trump with preventing it.
Pointing to the regime's killing of its own citizens, Rubio said that if that is what the regime is willing to do to its own people, the world should imagine what it would do to Americans, Israelis or anyone else in the region with a nuclear weapon.
He also warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would hold the global economy hostage. "If Iran had a nuclear weapon with which it could threaten its neighbors and the world, no one would be able to do anything about the straits," Rubio said. "They would be able to control the straits, charge a toll, and decide who got energy and who did not get energy on this planet. That's what they would do if they had a nuclear weapon, and worse."
His remarks came as the US and Iran remain deadlocked over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, after Trump rejected Tehran's latest proposal over the weekend.
