Pompeo seeks to rally ME allies on Iran
amman — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Middle East allies on Tuesday to confront “significant threats” posed by Iran and militants as he visited a region shaken by Washington’s surprise decision to withdraw from Syria.
The top US diplomat, in Jordan on the first leg of his longest trip since taking the post last year, said that the US troop pullout would not undermine the battle against the Daesh group.
“The most significant threats to the region are Daesh and the Islamic revolution,” Pompeo said at a news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, referring to Daesh and Iran.
Sustaining a regional coalition to counter Iran, the main enemy of US allies Saudi Arabia and Israel, is a major focus of Pompeo’s tour of eight Arab capitals in as many days.
“The counter Iran revolution is a coalition as effective today as it was yesterday and I’m very hopeful that it will continue to be effective and even more effective tomorrow,” he said.
“You’ll see in the coming days and weeks we are redoubling all our diplomatic and commercial efforts to put real pressure on Iran”.
Last year, Trump pulled out of an international accord negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama on ending Iran’s nuclear programme and has instead reimposed biting sanctions.
Pompeo has repeatedly called Iran “the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” pointing to its targeting of domestic rivals in Europe and support of militant movements such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif swiftly hit back at the latest US broadsides, tweeting that the “pure obsession with Iran is more and more like the behaviour of persistently failing psychotic stalkers.” —
You’ll see in the coming days and weeks we are redoubling all our diplomatic and commercial efforts to put real pressure on Iran
Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State