Turkey Says Not to Attend Anti-Iran Conference in Poland

TEHRAN (defapress) – A senior official at the Turkish Foreign Ministry said his country will not send any representatives to an anti-Iran conference that the US plans to open in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, later today.

News ID: 75575

Date: 13 February 2019 - 12:24

"Turkey’s political participation in such a meeting that targets one country is out of question," the unnamed official told the Hurriyet Daily News on Tuesday, Feb. 12.

“We are therefore not dispatching any representative to this meeting. Our embassy in Warsaw will follow it,” the official noted.

This decision is based on Turkey’s principles, the official explained, stressing that its non-participation should be interpreted as the Turkish government’s distance to the US-led initiative.

“In a statement in Cairo during a trip to Egypt, US Secretary of State Pompeo had unearthed the real motive of this initiative. In line with its principles, Turkey has always been against such moves,” said the official.

Russia is also not attending the meeting and it is believed that Qatar will also be absent in the Warsaw meeting. The European Union countries which have been critical to Washington’s anti-Iran policies will also be displaying low-level participation.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that the meeting would “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 destabilizing influence.”

Later, US officials retreated from their position and said the international conference due to be held in Warsaw on February 13 and 14 will not have an anti-Iran agenda.

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