Top US diplomat to visit Mideast next week to push anti-Iran message

Pompeo will fly to the Middle East on Tuesday, stopping first in Kuwait before heading to Israel and Lebanon, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Friday.

In Beirut, where Pompeo travels after Jerusalem al-Quds, one of the principal topics will be the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, the spokesman said.

The top US diplomat “will meet with a range of regional officials to discuss regional issues and challenges, [including] by Iran and Iranian proxies,” he added.

"The common thing in each of those places is helping those countries bolster their efforts to push back against the Islamic Republic of Iran," Pompeo told Fox News on Thursday.

The visit comes at a time that all US military adventures in the region have turned into quagmires which have haunted several US administrations.

Pompeo made a similar trip to the region in January to try to forge a unified Arab front against Iran, a dream that has brought together even Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Pompeo’s main objective in the tour was laying the groundwork for the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), a concept similar to an Arab NATO. Trump first floated the idea of forging MESA during his visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017.

The US hosted an anti-Iran summit last month in Warsaw, Poland. However, US efforts to build pressure against Iran faced a setback after ministers from several European Union members opted out of the summit.

The EU is at loggerheads with the Trump administration over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as it seeks to retain economic ties with Tehran despite renewed US sanctions.