Rubio says Iran would 'blackmail the world' if it had a nuclear weapon

Rubio says Iran would 'blackmail the world' if it had a nuclear weapon

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would use it to "blackmail the world and to kill people".

"It would control the straits, charge a toll, and decide who got energy and who did not," Rubio said during an interview with Fox News, and added that this could present an "unacceptable risk".

He also accused Tehran of using money received through sanctions relief or economic selling to build weapons and "export the revolution" rather than to "improve the lives of the Iranian people".

"They use the money to fund Hezbollah, they use the money to fund Hamas, they use the money to fund Shia militias in Iraq… they use the money to sponsor terrorism and assassination plots," Rubio said. 

The US Secretary of State also criticised the country's leadership, saying: "Who calls the shots in Iran are radical Shia clerics with an apocalyptic vision of the future. They believe that it is a religious calling to trigger about the last days of the world, the apocalypse."