Warsaw meet to pile pressure on Iran’s meddling in region
warsaw — Foreign ministers and senior officials from 60 nations gathered in the Polish capital Warsaw on Wednesday where the United States hopes to ratchet up pressure against Iran despite concerns among major European countries about heightened tensions with Tehran.
EU policy chief Federica Mogherini, who was a key player in the Iran nuclear deal, will not attend the two-day conference due to scheduling issues, an EU official said, although US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Brussels on Friday to meet her.
“This is a global coalition that is built to deliver on the important mission of reducing the risk that has emanated from the Middle East for far too long,” Pompeo said on Tuesday evening as he opened his visit to Poland.
We think there’ll be dozens of nations there seriously working towards a better, more stable Middle East, and I’m hoping by the time we leave on Thursday we’ll have achieved that,” he added.
“There will be discussions about Iran’s influence in the Middle East, what we can do to help get Iran on a more helpful footing than it has been, to collectively push back on some of its malign behaviour in the region,” a senior US official said of the Warsaw agenda.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
There will be discussions about Iran’s influence in the Middle East, what we can do to help get Iran on a more helpful footing than it has been, to collectively push back on some of its malign behaviour in the region
A senior US official
Netanyahu is likely to deliver a fiery address on Iran, whose leaders reject Israel’s existence.
New United States sanctions, mainly targeted at cutting off revenue from Iran’s oil sector, have largely succeeded in persuading European companies to abandon business with Iran. Iran has threatened to pull out of the deal unless the European powers enable it to receive economic benefits.
The Europeans have promised to help companies do business with Iran as long as it abides by the deal. —