Iranian officials have criticized the US decision to jointly host an international conference in Poland to build pressure on Tehran, dismissing it as a “desperate” attempt.
Washington announced on Friday that the summit would be held in Warsaw from February 13 to 14, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the meeting would focus on Middle East stability and security, including on the “important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence”, Reuters reported.
In response, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his Twitter account on Friday: “Reminder to host/participants of anti-Iran conference: Those who attended last US anti-Iran show are either dead, disgraced or marginalized. And Iran is stronger than ever.”
He also said, “While Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts a desperate anti-Iran circus."
Relations between Tehran and Washington worsened following the decision in May by US President Donald Trump to pull out of a nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers and to reimpose sanctions.
Pompeo, who is on an eight-day visit to the Middle East, said the meeting would “bring together dozens of countries from all around the world, from Asia, from Africa, from Western Hemisphere countries, Europe too, the Middle East of course”.
The chief US diplomat has said during the tour that the United States is “redoubling” efforts to put pressure on Iran.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told reporters on Saturday that the planned event shows Washington has failed to advance its agenda of exercising “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic through sanctions, ISNA reported.
“When a person who had insisted on sanctions with maximum pressure makes a shift toward seminars and conferences, it means that it has suffered a defeat,” he said, referring to Trump’s strategy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
Psychological Warfare
In remarks published by ISNA on Saturday, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, described the scheduled summit as part of a US propaganda push.
“Pompeo’s duty is to cover up US defeats through psychological warfare,” he said, adding that Washington is seeking to deflect attention from its failures in different parts of the region.
“The decision to hold this conference will definitely be criticized by European politicians and American political and media forums because the United States will further destabilize the region through such actions.”
The senior lawmaker also slammed Poland for its plan to host the conference and said Iran should respond “decisively” to the move.
Other partners to the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, namely Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, have sought to keep the agreement from unraveling, although in a shift earlier this week, the European Union moved to impose some sanctions on Iran.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz claimed in a statement that while his country supported the EU’s efforts to maintain the nuclear deal, the agreement “does not stop Iran from activities destabilizing the region” and he hoped the conference would bring closer the EU and US positions, Reuters reported.
He said more than 70 countries were invited to the conference, including all EU members.
Iran denies that its activities in the Middle East are destabilizing and says it is the policies of the United States and some of its regional allies that have wreaked havoc in the region.
