Could anyone help me to assemble a pattern that matches an arbitrary sequence of spaces and tabs?
To piggy-back on @Justin Morgan's answer, note that according to https://regex101.com/, \s+ is equal to [\r\n\t\f\v ]+.
\s+
[\r\n\t\f\v ]+
Therefore, if your system doesn't support the \s+ (or \s*) construct, use [\r\n\t\f\v ] in place of the \s part instead.
\s*
[\r\n\t\f\v ]
\s