Iran Protests Poland-US Mideast Summit

Iran Protests Poland-US Mideast Summit

Irans foreign ministry summoned a senior Polish diplomat Sunday to protest Polands jointly hosting a global summit with the United States focused on the Middle East, particularly Iran, state news agency IRNA reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday the summit, to be in Warsaw Feb. 13-14, would focus on stability and security in the Middle East, including on the important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence, VOA reports.

An Iranian foreign ministry official told Polands charge daffaires in Tehran that Iran saw the decision to host the meeting as a hostile act against Iran and warned that Tehran could reciprocate, IRNA added.

Polands charge daffaires provided explanations about the conference and said it was not anti-Iran, the agency added.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif criticized Poland for hosting the meeting and wrote on Twitter: Polish Govt cant wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts desperate anti-Iran circus.

Zarif was referring to Iran hosting more than 100,000 Polish refugees during the World War II.

Relations between Tehran and Washington are highly fraught following the decision in May by President Donald Trump to pull the U.S. out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers and to re-impose sanctions.