'If Rubio knew history': Iran consulate in Hyderabad takes dig at US Secretary of State's Taj Mahal visit

Rubio visited the Taj Mahal with his wife Jeanette Rubio

New Delhi: As United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Taj Mahal in Agra on Monday, Tehran reminded him about the role of the architects, calligraphers and master craftsmen of Iran in building the 17th-century mausoleum in India.

Rubio and his wife Jeanette visited the Taj Mahal on the third day of his tour to India, even as intense negotiations continued between Tehran and Washington, DC, to work out a deal to end the war.

The US Secretary of State and his wife posed for photos on the white marble bench in front of the Taj Mahal – a spot made famous globally by Princess Diana’s solitary 1992 photograph and later featured in photo-ops of several world leaders and their spouses, as well as celebrity couples, visiting the 'monument of love'.

“If Rubio knew the history or architecture, he wouldn't have posed for a picture here,” the Consulate General of Iran in Hyderabad posted on X, along with a picture of the couple, reminding the US secretary of state that Emperor Shahjahan had got the monument built as a tribute to his wife Mumtaj, who had her ancestral roots in Persia.

It also underlined that the emperor had brought in artisans from Persia – modern-day Iran – to build the mausoleum in India.

“This monument was built out of love for the Iranian wife of the emperor, crafted by the genius of Iranian architects,” Tehran’s consular mission in Hyderabad added on X. “Meanwhile, his (Rubio’s) government today threatens to wipe out Iranian civilisation.”

The Consulate was apparently referring to the -- "A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again, if a deal is not reached," remark made by US President Donald Trump on April 7, targeting Iran.

It also accused the US of insulting other civilisations around the world.

“The goal here ultimately, the ultimate goal is (to ensure) that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” Rubio had told journalists in New Delhi on Sunday. He had been asked about the status of the negotiation between Tehran and President Donald Trump’s administration in Washington, DC, while addressing a news conference with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar after a bilateral meeting.

“With regard to the claims made by the US Secretary of State concerning Iran’s nuclear program, the Islamic Republic of Iran once again recalls that, as a committed member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), it has consistently declared that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and remains under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” Tehran’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi had stated on Sunday, noting that the IAEA itself had thus far neither observed nor reported any diversion in nuclear activities of Iran.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the peaceful use of nuclear science and technology to be the legitimate and inalienable right of its people and emphasises that it will never relinquish this lawful and internationally recognised right.”

Rubio had purportedly emphasised during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday that the US would not let Iran hold the global energy market hostage.

He had apparently referred to the disruption of maritime traffic due to the widening conflict, particularly of the supply of energy to India and other nations, through the Strait of Hormuz – the critical choke point between the Persian Gulf, on one side, and the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, on the other.

The Embassy of Iran in New Delhi had reacted to the statements made by the US secretary of state in India and underlined that what had been disrupting and threatening maritime security and the passage of vessels in the Strait of Hormuz had actually been “the military, provocative, and adventurous actions of the US and the Zionist regime in the region.”