New Delhi: US Secretary of State marco rubioIn the presence of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, he launched a scathing attack on Iran and described it as the “world’s leading sponsor”. terror“.“Look at what they’re doing now. They’re holding civilian ships hostage, including ships that are now stuck in the Persian Gulf,” Rubio said. He said that the Donald Trump administration will never allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons.He said, “This is an Iran that has committed murders and attempted murders of people around the world, including civilians and dissidents and people they don’t agree with. There is no country on Earth that sponsors terrorism more than Iran. And they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars sponsoring terrorism and targeting individuals around the world.”The Iranian embassy here rejected Rubio’s comments, saying the current “disrupting and threatening maritime security and passage of ships” in the Strait of Hormuz was a “military, provocative and audacious action by the US and the Zionist regime in the region”. “Both of these regimes are key drivers behind the escalating global security and energy crisis and seek to further their political and military objectives by creating instability and insecurity,” it said.The embassy also said that Iran, “as a committed member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has consistently declared that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and remains under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency”.