Iran’s foreign ministry summoned a senior Polish diplomat Sunday in protest at Poland’s jointly hosting a global summit with the U.S. focused Iran and the Middle East.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday the international gathering would be held Feb. 13 to Feb. 14 in Poland to “focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and security here in this region, and that includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence.”
Pompeo is expected to call for increasing pressure on Iran and push for unity among Gulf neighbors still embroiled in a bitter dispute with Qatar. He’ll also be promoting a U.S.-backed initiative to form what some have termed an “Arab NATO” that would bring the region together in a military alliance to counter threats from Iran.
An Iranian foreign ministry official told Poland’s Chargé d’Affaires in Tehran, Wojciech Unoltin, that Iran saw the meeting as a “hostile act against Iran” and warned that Tehran could reciprocate, the official IRNA newsagency reported.
“Poland’s charge d’affaires provided explanations about the conference and said it was not anti-Iran,” the agency added.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticized Poland for hosting the meeting and wrote on Twitter: “Polish Govt can’t wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts desperate anti-Iran circus.”
Zarif was referring to Iran hosting more that 100,000 Polish refugees during the Second World War.
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