Iran and Poland have agreed to continue consultations over the agenda of a global summit focused on the Middle East, particularly Iran, which Warsaw plans to jointly host with the United States next month.
The agreement was reached during a meeting between Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Maciej Lang and Iran’s Ambassador Masoud Edrisi Kermanshahi, which was held in Warsaw on Monday at the request of the Iranian side, Poland’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its website.
“The talks covered plans to organize a conference on peace-building and security in the Middle East, to be hosted by Warsaw,” it added.
The meeting came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the conference—scheduled for Feb. 13-14—would focus on stability and security in the Middle East, including the “important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence”.
Angered by the announcement, Iranian authorities on Saturday summoned Warsaw’s top diplomat in the country and called off a Polish film festival.
In response, Poland’s Foreign Ministry said, “The international community has the right to discuss various regional and global issues,” adding that the goal of the summit is to provide a platform to explore ways of promoting stability and prosperity in the Middle East region.
Iranian and Polish officials agreed that dialogue on the summit’s agenda and on the prospects of overcoming the region’s key problems would continue
During Monday’s meeting, the Polish deputy foreign policy chief said nearly 80 countries that represent different views and maintain different relations with Iran have been invited to participate in the conference.
“We want this event to offer an opportunity for in-depth discussions about developments in the region and to look at ways of solving its major problems,” he said.
Lang and Kermanshahi agreed that dialogue on the summit’s agenda and on the prospects of overcoming the region’s key problems would continue the.
The ambassador hoped that further work on the program would make it possible to include a wider range of topics that are relevant to Middle East security, it added.
Desperate Effort
Kamal Dehqani, deputy chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the planned event shows the desperation of Washington, which has failed to rally the world against the Islamic Republic through legal channels and resorted to illegal means, including sanctions, to advance its anti-Iran agenda.
“The United States is seeking to carry out its Iranophobia project with the financial support of certain Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia,” he told ISNA in remarks published on Tuesday.
The senior lawmaker added that the upcoming summit will backfire, as US President Donald Trump’s actions, including its unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, have isolated the United States on the world stage.
Dehqani was referring to the fact that European countries as well as China and Russia have sought to maintain and uphold the 2015 deal over Iran’s nuclear program, following the Trump administration’s exit in May.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi told a regular press briefing in Tehran on Monday that the United States does not genuinely want to help resolve the problems facing the Middle East and has ulterior motives.
“If America wants to prove its goodwill, the only thing it has to do is to revise its attitude toward the region and stop exacerbating tensions and crises in this part of the world through divisive policies and manufactured threats,” he was quoted as saying by ISNA.
