US secretary of state Marco Rubio today accused Iran of trying to “hold the world hostage” through its attacks on Gulf countries and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think we are all now witnessing the threat this clerical regime poses to the region and to the world. They are trying to hold the world hostage,” Rubio said.
Speaking at a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, Rubio denounced Iranian attacks on the energy infrastructure and civilian population of neighbouring countries.
“The objective of this mission is to destroy their ability to continue doing so, and we are on track to achieve it,” the secretary of state said, referring to the US-Israeli offensive against Tehran.
The United States and Israel struck Iran on February 28, killing the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on the very first day. He was succeeded on Sunday by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei.
Since then, Iran has launched missiles and drones against Israel and the Arab monarchies of the Gulf, which serve as key bases for US forces.
Rubio was speaking at a ceremony honouring Americans “illegally detained” around the world, and was accompanied by members of the family of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in 2007. The United States concluded in 2020 that the Iranian government was involved in Levinson’s presumed death, as he had been on a mission to investigate cigarette counterfeiting. The Washington Post reported in 2013 that Levinson had been working with the CIA on an unauthorised mission to gather intelligence on Iran.
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Levinson “reminds us particularly of the nature of the regime we are dealing with in Tehran,” Rubio said, adding that the regime was founded “on an attack against the courageous men and women” of the diplomatic service — a reference to the hostage-taking at the US embassy in Tehran following the overthrow of the Shah in 1979.
