Iranian Foreign Ministry Summons Polish Diplomat Over 'Anti-Iran' Summit On Mideast

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2019) The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned on Sunday Polish charge d'affaires to express Tehran's protest over the upcoming "anti-Iran" international summit on the middle East, which is set to be held in Poland in mid-February at the US initiative and is regarded by Iran as a "hostile move," the ministry said in a statement.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would hold an international summit in Poland on February 13-14 to discuss cooperation on achieving stability and security in the Middle East. The secretary emphasized that the participants would also debate on the ways to make sure Iran was not a "destabilizing influence" in the region.

"The head of the First Eastern Europe Department at the Iranian Foreign Ministry told the Polish charge d'affaires that the upcoming conference was a hostile move by the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that Poland was expected to refrain from cooperating with the United States on holding this conference," the statement, published on the ministry's official website, said, adding that the diplomat was summoned "in protest against the anti-Iran conference.

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According to the statement, the Polish diplomat, in turn, said that the agenda of the summit was not anti-Iranian and that Warsaw's stance on the issue was different from the recent statements made by US officials.

The head of the Iranian foreign ministry's department insisted, however, that the Polish government should take immediate measures or "the Islamic Republic [of Iran] will have to take retaliatory measures."

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif slammed on Friday the upcoming event as a "desperate anti-Iran circus."