Tehran slams Warsaw for plans to host 'anti-Iran summit'

Poland’s envoy in Tehran was summoned by Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday to protest his country’s decision to host what it called an "anti-Iranian" summit, an Iranian spokesman said.

Wojciech Unolt, Poland's charge d’affaires in Iran, was called to "protest the anti-Iranian so-called peace and security conference," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi on his Telegram channel. 

He was told "this is a hostile act by the United States against Iran and Poland is expected to refrain from going along with the US in holding this conference," Ghasemi added. 

The summit was announced last week by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said dozens of countries would participate. 

They will "focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and security here in this region, and that includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilising influence," he told Fox News.

Poland's representative in Iran reportedly said the conference, to be held February 13-14 in Warsaw, was not anti-Iranian and that Poland did not share recent remarks by the US against Iran. 

The Iranian official said this was inadequate and Iran would be "forced to retaliate" if Poland did not back down. 

Tehran poured scorn on the meeting and pointed out that Iran, then impoverished after invasion by Britain and the Soviet Union, welcomed more than 100,000 Polish refugees during World War II.

"Polish Govt can't wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts a desperate anti-Iran circus," Foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted earlier this week.

Pompeo, who is spearheading the global anti-Iran conference, began a regional tour in the Middle East this week where he is to assist in strengthening the Gulf Cooperation Council as a key element to countering Iranian influence in the region.  

The US top diplomat flew in to Manama from Cairo and has already visited Amman, Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital of Erbil to reassure US allies after President Donald Trump's shock decision to withdraw all US troops from Syria.

He will also visit the other five members of the  Gulf Cooperation Council - the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

State Department officials have said Pompeo hopes his trip will strengthen the GCC, which has been weakened by a diplomatic rift that has pitted Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatar for more than 18 months.

They accuse Doha of supporting groups blacklisted as "terrorist" by the GCC and of advocating improved ties with Iran.

Doha, which is home to a huge US air base, has denied the claims.

The State Department has said that a "united Gulf Cooperation Council the backbone for regional peace, prosperity, security and stability" and key to countering Iran.

It said Pompeo would also work with regional leaders to advance a proposed Middle East Strategic Alliance - a NATO-style security pact.

During his talks in the Gulf, Pompeo is also expected to discuss the conflict in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting Iran-linked rebels since March 2015 despite a growing international outcry over the human cost.

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