BRUSSELS— The Trump administration aims to persuade allies the confrontation with Iran, which threatened to worsen into a deadly shooting war last week, is “not Iran versus the United States” but rather a global challenge requiring global diplomacy, the new acting Pentagon chief said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him to a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Mark Esper said he wants to help form a broader coalition to deter Iran and compel its leaders to return to the negotiating table for nuclear talks.

President Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States last year from an international deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and then reinstated harsh economic sanctions, says he wants to work out an even more restrictive deal with Tehran. Iran, however, denounced the latest U.S. sanctions as “idiotic” and an obstacle to talks.

On Tuesday, Trump responded in kind, lashing Iran’s leaders for rejecting his overtures and vowing that “any attack by Iran on anything American” would be answered with overwhelming U.S. military force that “in some areas” would mean “obliteration.”

Acting Defense Secretary Esper’s arrival in Europe was meant to reinforce a message delivered this week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who conferred with leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about countering any military threat from Iran by building a broad coalition that includes Asian and European countries. Officials said they hope this will include a wider international effort to monitor shipping in the Persian Gulf to deter Iranian attacks.

European leaders have appeared cool to the U.S. approach to Iran. Europe wants more emphasis on minimizing the chances of war, especially after the events of last week when Trump approved military retaliation for the shooting down of an American military drone aircraft but withdrew the order at the last minute. Since then, the administration has publicly emphasized its goal of “internationalizing” the Iran crisis.