Summoning comes after the US said Poland would host the February 13 summit, dubbed an ‘anti-Iran conference’ by Tehran.
Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned Poland’s envoy to the country after it was announced that Warsaw would host a summit on Iran in February.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said on Sunday Tehran conveyed its displeasure to Poland’s Chargé d’Affaires, Wojciech Unolt, over its apparent readiness to co-host the February 13 conference.
An unnamed official warned that Tehran would resort to unspecific “counter-action” if the Polish government “did not take urgent compensation measures”.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is on an official visit to the Middle East, told Fox News that the meeting in Poland would “focus on Middle East stability and peace, freedom and security here in this region and that includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilising influence”.
In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Twitter to admonish those who plan to participate in the conference.
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.
Polish Govt can't wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts desperate anti-Iran circus. pic.twitter.com/iOOvhgtUsL— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 11, 2019
“Reminder to host/participants of anti-Iran conference: those who attended last US anti-Iran show are dead, disgraced or marginalized. And Iran is stronger than ever,” Zarif wrote on Friday.
Pompeo’s trip to the Middle East this week is aimed at bolstering support for President Donald Trump’s policy in the region and spans a whole range of issues, including US troop withdrawal from Syria, the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar and the killing of a US-based journalist.
In a speech on Thursday in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Pompeo vowed to “expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria and urged the regional rival to come together to confront Tehran.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
