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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Pompeo from Jordan: Pressure against Iran Will Continue

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) holds a news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo kicked off on Tuesday an official visit to Jordan, the first stop of his eight-nation tour of the Middle East.

He held talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

"The most significant threats to the region are ISIS and Iran," Pompeo said at a news conference with Safadi.

"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".

For is part, Safafi said: “We all have problems with Iran’s expansionist policies in the region.”

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.

Pompeo's trip comes weeks after Trump announced that the United States would quickly pull its 2,000 soldiers out of Syria, declaring that ISIS had been defeated.

His advisers have since been walking back his timeline, and Pompeo reassured Washington's allies in the region that the "battle continues".

"The president's decision to withdraw our folks from Syria in no way impacts our capacity to deliver on that," said the secretary of state.

Pompeo's tour will also take him to Cairo, Manama, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Riyadh, Muscat, Kuwait City, and possibly Baghdad.

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