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What Warsaw's Iran conference left behind
Summary
A look back at the Warsaw gathering in mid-February 2019 and the dispute it exposed between Washington and EU members over Iran.
What was left of the Warsaw conference by 18 February 2019, four days after it ended? The meeting, hosted by Poland and the United States on 13 and 14 February 2019, had been announced as a forum on terrorism and extremism, missile development and proliferation, maritime trade and security, and threats posed by proxy groups across the region.
The framing had shifted along the way. In early February, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said the purpose was to focus on Iran's influence and terrorism in the region. European objections to that purpose followed, and the United States was forced to backtrack on plans to build a global coalition against Iran.
The sharpest moment came on 14 February 2019. US Vice President Mike Pence accused European Union members of trying to break US sanctions against Iran. He also called on the EU to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear agreement with Iran.
So the conference left a visible divide. Washington pressed for a harder line on Iran, while European governments had already objected to the way the meeting was presented. The accusation over sanctions and the call to leave the nuclear deal were the points on which that disagreement was stated most openly.
