The two-day gathering, which kicked off in Warsaw on Wednesday, was announced last month by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who described it as a platform for focusing on the “important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilising influence”.
Key European powers’ limited participation in a high-profile US summit on the Middle East in Warsaw reflects their “growing anger over unilateral US policymaking on Iran and Syria”, according to Patrick Wintour, The Guardian’s diplomatic editor. The gathering began earlier on Wednesday and is due to wrap up on Thursday.
The move was preceded by US President Donald Trump’s announcement of Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in early May 2018. Trump also pledged to reinstate all anti-Iranian sanctions which were scrapped after the implementation of the JCPOA.