Washington wants to build a global "coalition" against the Tehran regime and its "destabilizing 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 destabilizing 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.

Nauert did not say whether the proposed coalition against Iran's regime would have a military component.

She said the State Department received on Monday about 200 foreign diplomats to explain to them President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear accord, and the next steps.

In a breakthrough that ended a 12-year standoff over Western fears that Iran was developing a nuclear bomb, the administration of former president Barack Obama and other major powers reached the accord with Iran in 2015.

It lifted punishing international sanctions in return for Iran's agreement to freeze its nuclear effort.

Withdrawing from the deal last week, Trump called for a new agreement with deeper restrictions on Iran's nuclear program as well as curbs on its ballistic missiles and its backing for militant groups across the Middle East.

Along with Iran the other signatories of the 2015 deal -- France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia -- strongly criticized the US withdrawal.

On Thursday the European Union said it will begin moves to block the effect of reimposed US sanctions on Iran as efforts to preserve the nuclear deal deepened a transatlantic rift.

Asked about the potential willingness of European nations to join the proposed new coalition, Nauert said many US allies "fully understand" and are "not turning a blind eye" to Iran's actions.

EU countries agree Iran deal 'not perfect': Merkel
Sofia (AFP) May 17, 2018 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that EU countries agreed the Iran nuclear deal was "not perfect" but insisted it should be preserved, after the US withdrawal threw the accord into doubt.

EU leaders meeting in Sofia have backed a "united" approach to keeping the deal alive after US President Donald Trump pulled out and reimposed sanctions, complaining the accord did nothing to stop Iran's ballistic missile programme or interference in Middle East conflicts.

"Everyone in the European Union shares the view that the agreement is not perfect, but that we should remain in this agreement and conduct further negotiations with Iran on the basis of other issues such as the ballistic missile programme," Merkel said as she arrived for the summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the bloc was working to keep the existing agreement alive "so that our businesses can remain" in Iran.

This effort would run alongside work to "pursue negotiations on a vital broader agreement," Macron said.

"The 2015 agreement needs to be completed by a nuclear agreement beyond 2025, an agreement on ballistic activities and (Iran's) regional presence," Macron said.

Tehran has warned it is prepared to resume "industrial-scale" uranium enrichment "without any restrictions" unless Europe can provide solid guarantees that it can maintain the economic benefits it gained from the nuclear agreement despite Washington reimposing sanctions.

EU experts have begun work drawing up measures to shield the deal from US sanctions, focusing on nine key issues including ensuring Iran can sell its oil and gas products and have access to international finance.

But given the global reach of US government sanctions it is not clear how effective these measures can be, or whether the EU will try to leverage them as a bargaining chip with Washington.

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Iran's Zarif says EU meetings must be turned into action
Tehran (AFP) May 16, 2018
Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that meetings with EU leaders on salvaging the nuclear deal sent a strong political message but must now be turned into action. "If the JCPOA (nuclear deal) is supposed to continue, it was a good start and it has sent an important political message, but this is not the end of the work," Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters on his flight back to Tehran, according to state news agency IRNA. "From next week, intensive expert meetings will start in Europe. They ... read more