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President Trump's team is working to "checkmate Iran" through enhanced coordination with Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies, according to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

"What we're seeing is the nations in the region and others elsewhere trying to checkmate Iran and the amount of disruption, the amount of instability they can cause," Mattis told reporters in Riyadh following a meeting with Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense. "It's got to be ended."

Mattis said his meetings with Saudi Arabian leaders were "highly productive in terms of outcomes." Those meetings coincided with an announcement from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hinting that the Trump administration might withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by former President Barack Obama's national security team.

"Strategic patience is a failed approach," Tillerson said Thursday during a short address at the State Department. "The Trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on Iran."

The two comments appear to signal a major shift in U.S. policy towards confrontation with Iran.

"We have both spoken, His Majesty has talked to President Trump," Mattis said. "We have come to conclusions about our cooperation for the future. And now that we have the blessing of our leadership, it's important we actually do something with it we actually do something as we reinforce Saudi Arabia's resistance to Iran's mischief and make you more effective with your military as we work together as partners."

That could start in Yemen, where the U.S. military under Mattis and Trump has stepped up airstrikes against an Iran-backed militia group that is fighting against a Saudi-aligned government.

"Our goal is to push this conflict into the U.N.-brokered negotiations to ensure that it ends as soon as possible," Mattis added. "The international community will make progress on it. We'll have to overcome Iran's efforts to destabilize yet another country and create another militia in their image of Lebanese Hezbollah."

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Trump, US allies working to 'checkmate' Iran - Washington Examiner