Iran Threatens Poland Against Hosting Upcoming Summit

Iran warns Poland against hosting upcoming summit on Tehran's regional influence

Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned the Polish envoy to the country following an announcement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Poland will host an international conference on Iran and the Middle East in mid-February.

The official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday that Iran had conveyed its protest message to Poland’s Chargé d’Affaires Wojciech Unolt, demanding that Warsaw not go along with the “hostile move” by the United States against Tehran.

The statement quoted an unnamed Iranian official as saying that if the summit goes ahead, Iran will resort to unspecified “counter-action” toward Poland.

IRNA said “Poland’s charge d’affaires provided explanations about the conference.”

Pompeo said Friday that the US was organizing an international summit in Poland focusing on Iran’s Middle Eastern influence.

He made the announcement in an interview during a regional tour aimed at reassuring US allies after President Donald Trump’s shock decision to withdraw all American troops from Syria, which sparked concerns that Iran’s influence could grow.

“We’ll bring together dozens of countries from all around the world,” Pompeo told the Fox News network.

They will “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,” the top US diplomat said.

The event will take place on February 13 and 14.

Pompeo brought the Trump administration’s anti-Iran message to Gulf Arab states on Friday as he continued his nine-nation tour of the Middle East. As part of his trip he is said to be promoting a US-backed initiative to form what some have termed an “Arab NATO,” which would bring the region together in a military alliance to counter threats from Iran.

Pompeo kicked off the Gulf portion of his tour after a stop in Cairo, where he delivered a scathing rebuke of former president Barack Obama’s Middle East policies that Obama had outlined in a 2009 address to the Arab and broader Muslim world.