Warsaw Middle East Conference: What is the agenda?

Poland and the US have invited representatives from 60 countries to Warsaw to discuss the situation in the Middle East at a two-day conference. The event is controversial because critics are calling it an anti-Iran conference. But the fact that representatives from Tehran aren't attending isn't the only disappointing aspect as far as commentators are concerned.

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La Stampa (IT) /

Group portrait without Iran

The real goal of the conference is to create an anti-Iran front, La Stampa analyses:

“The point of this two-day conference is revealed in the final photo, in which among the representatives of more than 60 nations we see Netanyahu, the Saudi minister of foreign affairs Adel al Jubeir, his Omani counterpart Yusuf bin Alawi as well as representatives from the Emirates, Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen standing side by side for once. A pretty piece by the Sunni world which has joined forces against what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called 'the biggest threat to the stability of the region'. ... For its part Iran, which was not invited to Warsaw, is attending the Russian-Turkish counter-summit on Syria and condemning all those who in its view incited the attack on Wednesday in which more than 20 members of the Revolutionary Guard were killed.”

Süddeutsche Zeitung (DE) /

The US sowing discord

The US is playing a hugely divisive role, the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

“Using a trip to a European capital to directly attack France, Britain and Germany for the nuclear deal with Iran is an unfriendly act. Doing that in Warsaw, where Eurosceptics rule, is nothing less than an attempt to divide the European Union in the name of a 'new era of cooperation', as Secretary of State Pompeo put it. ... Europe would do well to react in a level-headed way and prepare for some fierce clashes with Trump's America. However, some EU countries seem to be eyeing the possibility of reaching separate deals with the White House. How else to explain Poland's willingness to host this summit?”

Gość Niedzielny (PL) /

Poland trapped

Gość Niedzielny sees the host country in a hopeless situation:

“Poland has landed in a trap with no way out and must therefore put all its eggs in one basket: an alliance with the United States. This leaves us no freedom in organising our relations with third countries - which in the end means a weakening in our relations with other powers. The trap is all the more dangerous in that there are practically no other options for negotiation. Because is it an alternative, as the opposition argues, to show 'solidarity' with the European Union on the Iran issue? Is Germany, which is about to sign another gas deal with Russia that undermines our security, supposed to guarantee our security?”