Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Iran takes center stage in Poland’s Mideast talks
WARSAW, Poland — Although it is absent from the stage, Iran is nevertheless taking the spotlight at a Mid- dle East security conference co-hosted by the United States and Poland that has highlighted deep divisions between the U.S. and some of its traditional allies.
Amid uncertainty over its aims and questions about what it will deliver, the conference opened late Wednesday in Warsaw with some 60 nations in attendance. Yet, in an apparent test of U.S. influence and suspicions in Europe and elsewhere over the United States’ intentions in Iran, many countries didn’t send their top diplomats and will be represented at levels lower than their invited foreign ministers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attended along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his counterparts from numerous Arab nations. But France and Germany are not sending Cabinet-ranked officials, and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is staying away.
Russia and China aren’t participating, and the Palestinians, who have called for the meeting to be boycotted, also will be absent. Iran, which is this week celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution, denounced the meeting as a “circus” aimed at “demonizing” it.
In a bid to encourage better participation, Pompeo and others sought to broaden what was initially advertised as an Iran-centric meeting to include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the fight against the Islamic State group, and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen. That effort produced only mixed results, particularly with longtime European allies who are trying to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after last year’s U.S. withdrawal.
And, while the agenda gives no hint of any concrete actions that might result beyond creating “follow-on working groups” on a variety of common concerns like terrorism and cybersecurity, comments from several participants belied the underlying theme: countering Iran.
Pence will address the conference on a range of Middle East issues, Pompeo will talk about U.S. plans in Syria after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops and Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and his peace partner, Jason Greenblatt, will speak about their as-yet unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Greenblatt, whose portfolio extends only the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort, said Iran is the top priority and derided the Palestinians for their boycott and insistence that their case is the region’s most important issue.
In a series of tweets Wednesday, Greenblatt said the Palestinian position “impedes nations from countering the common enemy of Iran.”
“Iran is the primary threat to the future of regional peace/security,” he said. “That’s what Palestinian leaders don’t grasp; as a consequence of being detached from new realities, we see Palestinians increasingly left behind/more isolated than ever.”
On his way to Warsaw, Netanyahu made clear the conference is centered on Iran.
“It is a conference that unites the United States, Israel, many countries in the world, many countries in the region, Arab countries, against Iran’s aggressive policy, its aggression, its desire to conquer the Middle East and destroy Israel,” he told reporters.
Pompeo has predicted that the conference will “deliver really good outcomes” and has played down the impact of lower-level participation. “We think we will make real progress,” Pompeo said. He didn’t, however, offer any details about specific outcomes.
Three of Washington’s main European allies, Britain, France and Germany, have unveiled a new financial mechanism that the Trump administration believes may be designed to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is attending the Warsaw conference, but his main interest is in a side meeting on the conflict in Yemen, according to diplomats familiar with the planning.
Earlier this week, Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton released a short video on the anniversary of the Iranian revolution in which he called Iran “the central banker of international terrorism” and accused it of pursuing nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them. It ended with a not-so-veiled threat to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “I don’t think you’ll have many more anniversaries to enjoy.”
Khamenei, meanwhile, denounced the United States in a speech Wednesday.
“About the United States, the resolution of any issues is not imaginable and negotiations with it will bring nothing but material and spiritual harm,” Khamenei said. He described any possible future negotiations as an “unforgiveable mistake” that would be like “going on your knees before the enemy and kissing the claws of the wolf.”