U.S. and Israeli leaders continued to push for confrontation with Iran at the Warsaw ministerial meeting on Middle East security Thursday, strongly criticizing Europe in the process, CNN informed.
According to Vice President Mike Pence, Iran is the central driver of all regional instability. Pence addressed the 62 countries gathered in Warsaw, ripping into Europe for its refusal to leave the Iran nuclear deal and join Washington on increasing sanctions on Tehran.
“Sadly, some of our leading European partners have not been nearly as cooperative on Iran as countries in the Gulf have been,” Pence said in an address to the ministerial.
Referring to Iranian protests in 2009, Pence said, “The world missed an opportunity last time to confront the regime, but not this time.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also told NBC that Iran “has to be countered and it has to be countered now.” Asked if that means regime change, Netanyahu said, “I don’t rule anything out.”
A day before, Netanyahu’s office released, then softened a statement saying he had met with Gulf leaders to discuss their common interest in “war with Iran.” On Thursday, Netanyahu added his own criticism of Europe, noting that the US had pulled out of the Iran deal and added sanctions. “The Europeans should join this effort rather than try to circumvent it,” he said.
Pence’s remarks about Europe and advocating for an aggressive stance against Iran are likely to become yet another irritant between the U.S. and Europe, already at odds over the Iran nuclear deal, trade, the Paris climate agreement as well as President Donald Trump’s attacks on the European Union and NATO, his support for populists and for Britain’s exit from the EU.
Allies such as France and Germany declined to send senior officials to the ministerial, which was initially supposed to focus on Iran and then was broadened to cover Yemen, Syria and attempts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, partly in response to European objections, CNN adds.
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