Washington seeks to forge global ‘coalition’ against Iran regime, in wake of Trump’s nuclear deal pull-out

Washington wants to build a global “coalition” against the Tehran regime and its “destabilising activities,” the State Department said on Thursday, after pulling out from the Iran nuclear accord to the anger of US allies.

The plan is to be detailed on Monday by the top United States diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his first major foreign policy address since taking office in April.

“The US will be working hard to put together a coalition,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.

The aim is to “bring together a lot of countries from around the world with the specific goal of looking at the Iranian regime through a more realistic lens” which would include “all of its destabilising activities that aren’t just a threat to the region but are a threat to the broader world,” she said.

Nauert added that the coalition will not be “anti-Iran” because the US stands “firmly behind” the country’s people, in contrast to the regime and its “bad actions.”

She evoked a comparison with the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Begun in 2014, that coalition now counts as members 75 countries or institutions and intervened militarily against the jihadists, although only a minority of coalition members have conducted most of that military action, which has left the extremists nearly defeated on that battlefield.