News from the Warsaw conference on peace and security in the Middle East

[Solomon2]

PM Netanyahu at the opening of the Warsaw conference on peace and security in the Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives for a session at the conference on Peace and Security in the Middle east in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Trump administration lashed out at some of America's closest traditional allies on Thursday, accusing Britain, France and Germany of trying to "break" U.S. sanctions against Iran and calling on European nations to join the United States in withdrawing from the landmark 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

In an unusually blunt speech to a Middle East conference in Poland, Vice President Mike Pence slammed the three countries and the European Union as a whole for remaining parties to the agreement after the Trump administration withdrew from it last year and re-imposed tough sanctions on Iran.

The harsh criticism threatened to further chill U.S.-European ties, already badly strained, including over the Iran focus of the Warsaw conference, co-hosted by the U.S. and Poland. France and Germany had declined to send their top diplomats to the foreign minister-level meeting and E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also stayed away.

Pence was especially critical of Britain, France and Germany for unveiling last month a new financial mechanism that U.S. officials believe is intended to keep the nuclear deal alive by evading American sanctions. Pence praised other nations for complying with the sanctions by reducing Iranian oil imports but said the Europeans fell short.

"Sadly, some of our leading European partners have not been nearly as cooperative," Pence said. "In fact, they have led the effort to create mechanisms to break up our sanctions."
He said the mechanism, known as the "special purpose vehicle," is "an effort to break American sanctions against Iran's murderous regime." ''It's an ill-advised step that that will only strengthen Iran, weaken the E.U., and create still more distance between Europe and the United States."

Pence then called for Europe to abandon the nuclear agreement.

"The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join with us as we bring the economic and diplomatic pressure necessary to give the Iranian people, the region and the world the peace security and freedom they deserve," he said.
Earlier, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Iran the top security threat to the Middle East, and said confronting the country is key to reaching peace in the entire region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, talk to the press on the sidelines of a session at the conference on Peace and Security in the Middle East in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)


Pompeo, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the opening session of the conference, said "pushing back" against Iran was central to dealing with all the region's other problems.




Department of State

✔@StateDept
https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1096032758437015553

.@SecPompeo delivered opening remarks at the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East today in Poland. #WarsawSummit


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"You can't achieve peace and stability in the Middle East without confronting Iran. It's just not possible," Pompeo said.
The U.S. and Poland say the conference is aimed at promoting peace and security in the Mideast and discussing issues such as Syria, Yemen, the fight against the Islamic State, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, cybercrime and terrorism.

The conference was attended by representatives from numerous Arab countries, but notable absences include Russia, China, and the Palestinians, who have called for the meeting to be boycotted.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting the presidents of Iran and Turkey on Thursday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi to discuss a Syria peace settlement, as expectations mount for an imminent and final defeat of the Islamic State group ahead of the U.S. pullout.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, arrives for a session at the conference on Peace and Security in the Middle east in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)


In Warsaw, Netanyahu lauded the participation of high-profile Arab dignitaries at the conference, saying it marked a "historical turning point" that signaled a shift in regional priorities.

"In a room of some 60 foreign ministers and representatives of dozens of governments, an Israeli prime minister and the foreign ministers of the leading Arab countries stood together and spoke with unusual force, clarity, and unity against the common threat of the Iranian regime," Netanyahu said. "I think this marks a change, an important understanding of what threatens our future."
While Pompeo said in his opening remarks that "No one country will dominate the discussion today nor will any one issue dominate our talks", his earlier comments and Pence's keynote speech made clear that the conference was largely focused on isolating Iran.

From left, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yemen's Foreign Minister Khalid al-Yamani and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attend a session at the conference on Peace and Security in the Middle east in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Iran has denounced the gathering as an American anti-Iran "circus" aimed at "demonizing" it.

 

[Solomon2]

Front row third from left, United States Vice President Mike Pence, fourth from left, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, fifth from left, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sixth from left, United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, pose for a group photo at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019. The Polish capital is host for a two-day international conference on the Middle East, co-organized by Poland and the United States. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/10858...nting-iran-key-to-mideast-peace#ixzz5fX5pMsKN
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In Warsaw, Pence hails sight of Netanyahu ‘breaking bread’ with Arab leaders


Participants are seen during preparations for a family photo at the conference on Peace and Security in the Middle East in Warsaw, on February 13, 2019. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is at center (Janek SKARZYNSKI / AFP)

Vice President Mike Pence delivers a speech during the second day of an international conference devoted to peace and security in the Middle East, in Warsaw, Poland, on Feb. 14, 2019. (Photo: EPA-EFE)

Pence: Europe must withdraw from Iran nuclear deal

WARSAW, Poland – Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took the White House's aggressive anti-Iran message to a U.S.-sponsored meeting in Poland on peace and security in the Middle East that concluded Thursday.

Pence used his address to the conference in Poland's capital Warsaw to demand that European countries withdraw from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that President Donald Trump's administration has already abandoned.

He urged U.S. allies to back Washington's sanctions on Iran, re-imposed after Trump exited the 2015 accord last year. Long-standing U.S. allies in Europe favor staying in the deal and have sought ways to keep open trade and financial dealings with Iran.

Disagreement over the issue is what partly led to Germany, France and other major U.S. allies not sending their top diplomats to the summit in Poland....

...The summit appears to be the first time an Israeli leader and senior Arab officials were attending an international conference centered on the Middle East since the Madrid peace conference in 1991, which set the stage for the landmark Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians...Representatives of some 60 nations are set to attend the conference in Warsaw, including the foreign ministers of ten Arab countries.

Poland: Netanyahu meets Omani FM at Warsaw conference on Middle East


Netanyahu, Pence visit Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial


Warsaw conference (Photo: AP)

"...during the conference, the microphone of Netanyahu failed to work prompting the Yemeni foreign minister to lend him his microphone, eliciting a lighthearted remark from Netanyahu regarding the “new cooperation between Israel and Yemen.”"

 

[jamal18]

By 'Peace and Security' I take it they mean an attack on Iran?

 

[Solomon2]

...The biggest event of the conference will be a private dinner Wednesday evening, with foreign ministers and other representatives from more than 60 countries. Netanyahu will be in a large dining hall with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab states.

Diplomatic toasts will be offered, and official photographs taken. Israel’s quiet relationship with its former regional rivals will become a little less so...

...Hundreds of expatriate Iranians from various European countries demonstrated against the regime in Tehran at Warsaw's National Stadium, where the conference takes place on Thursday.

The protests were organized by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK.

The formerly armed group, which was labeled a terrorist organization by the US until 2012, sees itself as the true representative of the Iranian people and is in favor of regime change.

Read more: Missile test: Did Iran backstab the EU?

Shahin Gobadi, who heads NCRI's international committee, told DW that the fact that Iran had not been invited to the conference was not the problem, "since Iran is the source of all the problems in the region."

IRANIANS EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR THE RESISTANCE AND REGIME CHANGE IN WARSAW MAJOR RALLY
Published: 13 February 2019

By INU Staff

• Iran: 40 years after religious dictatorship, time has come for regime change

• Recognize right of Iranian people to resist and change Iran regime

In a major rally in Warsaw on February 13, Iranians called for a regime change while expressing support for the Iranian resistance, namely the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI).

The Iranians urged the international community to recognise the right of the Iranian people to overthrow the clerical regime ruling Iran and establishment of democracy.

A year of continual uprisings has brought the regime in power in Iran to the brink of collapse. Iranians are restless and angry at the entirety of the ruling system. Protests spanning 142 cities rocked Iran’s 31 provinces during 2018. Workers, farmers, teachers, pensioners, hard-hit business owners, bazar merchants, and of course students and women have taken to the streets calling for change.

Alarm at the protesters’ affiliation to Iran’s main organized resistance movement, the MEK/PMOI, the pivotal force of the political alternative for future Iran, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has permeated the regime.

The protests have shown continuity, expansiveness, growing solidarity, and are fueled by the crumbling economy, depleted from domestic corruption, and under pressure by international sanctions.

Simultaneously with the two day Foreign Ministers’ conference on the Middle East held in Warsaw, a few thousand Iranians gathered close to the National Stadium said it was time to put an end to four decades of political and social repression, massacres, plunder of Iran’s wealth by the regime’s cronies, and misery and war forced upon the region by this regime.

Protesters called on the West to impose sanctions on the regime and include the Iranian regime’s IRGC and MOIS and perpetrators of crimes against the Iranian people on the EU terrorist list.

They said it was time for European countries to align their voices with the voice of the Iranian people and resistance, and to end the nightmare of four decades of the Iranian regime’s atrocities in Iran, the region, and the world.

A video message by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was broadcast to the demonstration. Madame Rajavi said that the Iranian people’s “immediate demand from the world and their lawful expectation from the Warsaw Summit is for them to recognise the right of the Iranian people’s Resistance to overthrow the mullahs’ theocratic regime to achieve freedom.”


“The Iranian nation deserves this; they have proven it through long years of their quest for freedom and steadfast endurance in confronting one of the world’s most oppressive and ruthless dictatorships. That includes their protests and uprisings over the past year,” Madame Rajavi added.

She formulated the Resistance’s demand: “Respect our people’s struggle against religious oppression and gender discrimination. This would not be any favor or concession to our nation. Rather, it would only end the long-time abuse of their rights facilitated through the West’s policy of appeasement.”

Renowned personalities no less than former New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sid Ahmed Ghozali, former Algerian Prime Minister took to the stage.

“Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world. We should not be doing business with a regime that supports terror. The Warsaw Summit should be focused on how we change Iran. How do we change their behaviour against their people.” said Mr. Giuliani. “We believe the alternative to this regime is Madam Maryam Rajavi. We want that the people of Iran can have their country back. We want to see a democratic Iran. A non-monarchy, non-mullah dictatorship,” he added.


Former Prime Minister Ghozali said: “We want stability of the Middle East and all neighbouring countries. The main menace is coming from state terrorism by the Iranian regime, and we see that violence in countries like Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. This is why the sacrifice of the Iranian people is not only for freedom in the Middle East but for the whole world.”

Marcin Święcicki, a Member of Parliament from Poland former Mayor of Warsaw affirmed:

“I am here to support the democratic opposition in Iran. Poland had to fight for its freedom, and the Iranian people are doing the same. That’s why we support the democratic opposition in Iran against a regime that is suppressing its people. We support Mrs Maryam Rajavi and her 10-point plan for equal rights for men and women, rights for minorities, religion and freedom of choice. I am certain that this fight for democracy and to abolish a regime that does not respect human rights will be a successful one.”

Protesters condemned the terrorist plot of the mullahs’ regime against the largest opposition gathering in Paris on June 30, 2018, calling for the expulsion of agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security of the ruling regime from the United States of America and Europe. They formulated their demands:

• Recognise the inalienable right of the Iranian people and resistance to overthrow the religious fascism ruling Iran,

• Encourage the referral of the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 and the clerical regime's human rights record to the UN Security Council.

• Apply all necessary measures to expel Iranian regime forces and proxies from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Afghanistan.

• Dismiss the Iranian regime delegation from the United Nations

• Recognise the National Council of Resistance of Iran as the viable political alternative to this regime.

According to the demonstrators, for a sustainable democracy in Iran, the world must rely on the people of Iran and its resistance. Change in Iran is a necessity for peace and security in the region and the world.

The gathering was followed by a march around the National Stadium, with Iranian flags and banners waving all the way and slogans shouted by the crowd urging an end to appeasement of the mullahs’ regime.

[CGTN is funded in whole or in part by the Chinese government Wikipedia]

Warsaw’s Middle East Conference concluded
rl/kn 14.02.2019, 19:43
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The EU and the United States share similar views on the negative role of Iran in the Middle East, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said during the press conference closing the Middle East security meeting in Warsaw.

“The aim of the conference was to discuss ways of keeping peace in the Middle East, and it was fulfilled, the US Secretary of State and the co-host of the conference Mike Pompeo stated.

Mr Czaputowicz pointed out that during the two-day meeting, "Iran appeared repeatedly in a very negative light, and that countries in the Middle East listed it as a factor that destabilises the geopolitical situation in the region.”

“Iran is definitely not excluded. Iran has not been invited, but that does not mean that we are closing the discussion with them,” he added

“The meeting of representatives of the Arab states and Israel in Warsaw may be a harbinger of a new chapter in relations in the Middle East; we would like it to happen because it is a condition of maintaining peace and security in the region,” Mr Czaputowicz stated.

“We believe that further sanctions should be imposed on Iran. This will eliminate the kleptocracy that is in Iran. (...) Iran is not a partner for talks,” Mr Pompeo stated.

International working groups

One of the most important results of the conference was the creation of international working groups to propose solutions in several dimensions related to the situation in the Middle East.

These working groups will deal with the following issues: fighting terrorism and illegal financing, the proliferation of missiles and weapons, fighting threats in cyberspace and in the area of energy as well as human rights and humanitarian aid.

Middle East plan announcement postponed

The US President Donald Trump's aide and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, told the participants that a plan for the Middle East would be presented after the elections in Israel.

The diplomat postponed announcing the plan, known as the "deal of the century", due to a possible leak.

The parliamentary elections in Israel are scheduled for 9 April.

Several dozen delegations, including participants from countries in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates) and EU member states attended the two-day meeting in Warsaw.

Iran was not invited to attend the conference and Tehran recognises Poland's co-organisation of the conference as an act of hostility.

The Palestinian National Authority declined to take part. The conference was also not attended by Lebanon, Russia and Turkey.

source: POLSKIE RADIO 24, PAP, TVP.INFO

 

[TruthHurtz]

So basically a bunch of jews, ayyrabs and shabbos goy neocons come together in perfect harmony to scheme (in typical matter) against Iran in a nation that hates their guts? Isn't this just the same as any other AIPAC, ADL, SPLC conference just with a different target?

 

[Crystal-Clear]

By 'Peace and Security' I take it they mean an attack on Iran?

bunch of jews discussing how to make usa attack iran .

 

[urienreghed]

@Solomon2
why you make advertisment for a terrorist group (MeK/PMO ) known being a terrible sect?
what is your problem?

i understand the right for speech for any group . like royalists, gilets jaunes here, extremists even.
but these kind of fanatics ? seriously???

 

[DavidSling]

 

[jamal18]

bunch of jews discussing how to make usa attack iran .

'An enemy of Israel is an enemy of the entire world.'

i.e. get the goyim to fight Israel's war.

 

[Dexon]

I know 3 person in this picture!. Are they famous?

 

[Oublious]

So what is this good for Palestines? The deal of the century...

One fat Arab talking about three countries occupy Syria(Turkey, Iran and Russia), whore kid why don't you talk about Israel? You know i am starting hate this miserable Arab gulfies more and more. American are in Syria why not barking to your master? People have to watch the full conferences and see how that shit gulfies are.

Money corrups, that is be proven if you look to the gulfies.

 

[Crystal-Clear]

'An enemy of Israel is an enemy of the entire world.'

i.e. get the goyim to fight Israel's war.

israel is the curse for middle east . the fitna in the region.

 

[Solomon2]

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
War & peace, Polish offense, a broken plane: Crazy days with Netanyahu in Warsaw
‘Amazing’ things unfolded in Israeli-Arab ties during his three-day visit to Poland this week, the PM has said. Well, the trip has certainly been unforgettable

By RAPHAEL AHREN Today, 5:06 pm

• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters on the plane home from Poland in the early hours of February 15, 2019 (Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)
  
  
  WARSAW — Reporters covering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trips abroad collect some memorable experiences over the years.
  
  In September 2012 — my first time joining a prime ministerial voyage as The Times of Israel’s diplomatic correspondent — the bus that was supposed to transport us from New York’s JFK Airport to the UN headquarters broke down.
  
  Stranded inside a tunnel on FDR freeway, with cars swooshing by, my colleagues and I hitched a ride with an empty yellow school bus driven by a Russian-speaking Jew, who volunteered to drive us to Turtle Bay in time to catch Netanyahu’s speech.
  
  In July 2017, on the way back from Budapest, the prime minister’s wife Sara — a former flight attendant — decided to celebrate the birthday of a staff member and insisted on personally serving my colleagues and I cake in our seats in the back of the plane.
  
  
  
  שלמה צזנה@cesana
  
  הגברת שרה נתניהו חילקה עוגות לכל העיתונאים בטיסה. (גם לי). מיום ההולדת של עדנה חלבני העובדת הוותיקה
  
  Of course, there are also much loftier reasons to remember trips with the prime minister. Netanyahu considers nearly all of his trips “historic,” but some truly are — as, for instance when he marked the 40th anniversary of the Entebbe raid at the very airport in the heart of Uganda where his beloved brother Yoni was killed.
  
  There was the moving occasion when he laid a wreath at the site of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, where on March 17, 1992, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the compound, killing 29 people, including Israelis. (On that trip he became the first Israeli leader to visit Latin America.)
  
  And a landmark trip came when we flew to N’Djamena earlier this year, for just a few hours, for the official reestablishment of diplomatic ties with Chad, a Muslim-majority in northern Central Africa.
  
  
  
  
  Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno (R) shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting at the presidential palace in N’Djamena, Chad on January 20, 2019.(Brahim Adji/AFP)
  This week’s three-day trip to Poland had its share of both pretty peculiar and potentially pivotal moments. It was also not short, however, on what might be described as screw-ups — prime ministerial, and otherwise.
  
  A ‘new era’?
  Netanyahu traveled to Warsaw to attend a conference on the Middle East, which he said would focus on the common goal of tackling Iran and its aggression. Delegates from 60 countries attended the so-called “Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East,” including the foreign ministers of nearly a dozen Arab states.
  
  No joint statement was released at the end of the summit — mostly due to the fact that the US and some of the attending European nations do not see eye to eye vis-à-vis Iran — and the text that American and Polish co-organizers released did not actually refer to the Islamic Republic.
  
  Tehran was mentioned frequently by delegates as a source of instability in the region, but the summit didn’t reach any concrete conclusions. In this context it is worthwhile noting that at the same time, the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia — the countries that have a lot more skin in the Syrian game than Poland and even the US (which is planning to withdraw its remaining troops) — convened in Sochi to discuss their plans for the future of the war-torn country.
  
  And yet, the Warsaw Summit featured some highly significant elements. For the first time in many years, senior officials from Arab countries agreed to attend an international conference discussing peace in the Middle East together with Israel.
  
  
  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) greets Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah at the sidelines of a regional conference on the Middle East in Warsaw, February 13, 2018. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
  Netanyahu hosted the foreign minister of Oman on Wednesday afternoon, even before the summit had started. The two men hailed a “new era” in the Middle East, recalling the prime minister’s recent visit to Muscat, where he met Sultan Qaboos.
  
  On Wednesday evening, at the conference’s opening gala in Warsaw’s historic Royal Castle, Netanyahu — the only head of government in attendance — took the podium right after a panel of the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. What’s even more remarkable than the fact that these ministers, and other Arab delegates, did not leave the room when the Zionist prime minister spoke, is that their core messages were exactly the same.
  
  Both Netanyahu and the Arab ministers agreed in their separate presentations — offered behind closed doors, with the press kept out — that the nuclear deal with Tehran was a terrible mistake and that, overall, Iran is the most pressing matter the Middle East needs to address, trumping the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
  
  “Every nation has the right to defend itself, when it’s challenged by another nation, yes,” the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said in response to a question about Israeli strikes against Iranian targets in Syria.
  
  
  Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
  Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said that the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians would have been at a much better place were it not for Iran’s malign behavior.
  
  “We grew up talking about the Israel-Palestine issue as the most important issue” that has to be “solved, one way or another.” he said. “But then, at a later stage, we saw a bigger challenge, we saw a more toxic one — in fact the more toxic one in our history — that came from the Islamic Republic.”
  
  It’s no secret that the Gulf states have no love lost for Iran, and that some are warming relations with Israel. But having three ministers say some of this relatively openly (more on that in a moment) is unprecedented.
  
  Netanyahu himself later gushed to the press about a taboo being broken, saying the Arab officials were acutely aware that it is being noticed that they publicly interact with him, but no longer care that much.
  
  The dinner, he said, was a “historic turning point” in Israeli-Arab relations.
  
  On Thursday morning, at the summit’s opening session, Netanyahu was seated next to Yemen’s Foreign Minister Khaled Alyemani. Officially, Israel still considers Yemen an “enemy state” and prohibits its citizens from traveling there. The hostility is usually reciprocal.
  
  But when it was the Israeli leader’s turn to address the conference, his microphone didn’t work, so Alyemani gracefully let him use his. Another example of the creeping normalization between Israel and the Arab world?
  
  Not so fast.
  
  Alyemani later took to Twitter to clarify, without naming Netanyahu, that the conference’s organizers were in charge of protocol, and “errors” in the way the delegates were seated is their responsibility.
  
  Also, Bahrain — a country many Israelis think is ready to openly speak about ties with Israel — did not use the conference as an opportunity to make any substantive diplomatic move.
  
  “My whole country is holding its breath for the moment when you’ll establish formal relations with us,” I said to Al Khalifa, the foreign minister, when he walked over to shake my hand after delegates had gathered in a conference room to pose for a “family photo.” He kept on shaking my hand but didn’t respond at first. “Is it going to happen?” I pressed.
  
  “Eventually,” he replied, now moving toward the exit.
  
  “Will it happen soon?” I called after him, but he was not interested in answering.
  
  In the end, apart from the Omani foreign minister, Netanyahu left the conference without a photographed direct meeting with any of the Arab leaders he insists are no longer concerned with keeping their Israel relationship secret. Warsaw was certainly a step forward in Israel’s slow rapprochement with the Arab world, but slow is the operative word.
  
  ‘War’ with Iran
  The trip was memorable for other reasons, at least for a reporter looking for interesting angles.
  
  Between hosting the Omani foreign minister and the summit’s opening gala, Netanyahu took a stroll outside his hotel to film a clip he later posted on his social media account. In the short video, he speaks, in Hebrew, of the common interest to advance “war with Iran.”
  
  The statement was translated into English and posted on the prime minister’s social media accounts, quickly raising an internet storm. Senior journalists from various parts of the world reported on the apparently belligerent statement, and even Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif weighed in.
  
  The prime minister’s aides quickly removed the tweets, and re-posted Netanyahu’s comments, now speaking, in a more sensitive translation, of “combating Iran.”
  
  The actual conference, held in halls at a soccer stadium, went smoothly for Netanyahu, as did his meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines of the event.
  
  His planned sit-down with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, on the other hand, nearly turned into a diplomatic incident, as Netanyahu kept his host waiting for over an hour. Elsewhere at the conference, Jared Kushner was discussing his Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal, and apparently Netanyahu didn’t want to leave the room in the middle of that session.
  
  A wreath-laying ceremony at a monument honoring the members of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto later that afternoon also passed with no problems, as did the subsequent brief meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence at the adjacent Jewish museum.
  
  Poles and the Holocaust
  Still in the museum, Netanyahu sat down for a briefing with the traveling Israeli press, as he does on every trip. He spoke at considerable lengthabout the conference and the significance of him sitting in the same room as Arab leaders. “Amazing” things were happening, he said. He also repeatedly urged us to use our sources to find out exactly what those Arab leaders had said during the previous’ night’s opening gala.
  
  Since we were in a museum at the very site where the Jewish ghetto once stood, I decided to ask Netanyahu about last year’s controversial joint Israeli-Polish declaration regarding the Holocaust.
  
  The issue indeed came up in his meeting with Morawiecki, the prime minister told me, but he refused to respond to the harsh criticism Israeli historians have leveled at the text.
  
  Rather, he said that Poles “in not insignificant numbers” cooperated with the Nazis, adding that he was unaware that anyone was prosecuted for saying this. (Polish law prohibits accusing the “Polish nation” of complicity in the Holocaust.)
  
  But The Jerusalem Post misquoted Netanyahu as having said “Polish nation,” which kicked off a veritable diplomatic incident. Poland threatened to boycott a planned conference next week in Jerusalem, and summoned Israel’s ambassador in Warsaw. The crisis only began to die down after Israeli officials clarified that the prime minister had never said the “Polish nation” was responsible for Nazi atrocities.
  
  The leaked clip
  Late Thursday, Netanyahu’s spokesperson sent several reporters a link to a clip with the Arab foreign ministers’ pro-Israel, anti-Iran statements from the gala the night before. It was a private link to the prime minister’s YouTube channel, and the spokesperson tried to make it seem as if the link was sent out to reporters accidentally (though we all recalled that Netanyahu and aides had urged us at the briefing to find out what was said at the event).
  
  Either way, determining that the clip’s content was emphatically of public interest, we decided together to report on it, despite the odd way in which it was made available.
  
  Shortly after the first headlines and tweets about the sensational quotes appeared (followed by criticism from opposition MK Tzipi Livni, who accused the prime minister of jeopardizing Israel’s foreign relations to score points before the elections), Netanyahu’s office removed the clip.
  
  One of my colleagues was later assured the link had indeed been sent out accidentally. If so, it was a mistake that may have played to Netanyahu’s personal political favor ahead of the elections, and the clip did confirm everything he had told us in the briefing not long before about that common Arab concern over Iran and its overshadowing of the Palestinian issue. As for the longer-term consequence, and the question of whether the Arab leaders in the clip will feel burned by the PMO and more wary of interacting with the Israeli leadership, only time will tell.
  
  The plane problem
  Later Thursday evening, after Netanyahu made reporters wait for several hours (possibly for a Valentine’s Day dinner with his wife?), we were finally driven to the airport for the flight home, where we waited again for what felt like an eternity.
  
  Tired from a busy day of running around and reporting, we boarded the plane about half an hour after midnight. Some 40 minutes later, the plane started moving. Then it came to a halt.
  
  
  Flight crew stand in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s damaged plane on February 15, 2019. (Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)
  A vehicle had collided with the plane’s front wheel, causing damage that could not be immediately repaired. Security officials and El Al engineers scurried about the aircraft for a while, looking as confused as we were. At about 2:30 a.m. it was decided that El Al would have to send a substitute plane from Israel, and that we would have to spend another night in Warsaw.
  
  
  A Warsaw airport vehicle that damaged the plane that was supposed to take Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to Israel, February 15, 2019 (Raphael Ahren)
  At about 3:15 a.m., we checked in at a nearby hotel, hoping to get some rest. A little less than four hours later, we were told via WhatsApp message that we had half an hour to pack and head to the El Al counter at the airport for another series of security checks and passport controls. After that, and some more waiting, we finally boarded the Boeing 737 that would take us back to Tel Aviv (and where this article was written).
  
  Now we just had to wait for the prime minister and his wife, who had spent the night at the Intercontinental, in the city center.
  
  They arrived at 10:30 a.m., looking well-rested. Before they could sit down, reporters dashed toward the first class seats to ask the prime minister about the Holocaust row with Poland, on which he had not yet commented. He refused to answer any questions.
  
  Instead, Sara Netanyahu told us journalists how well her husband had cared for our well-being over the last few hours. She did not serve us cake.
  

 

[raptor22]

Water foam would be vanished ... like these ppl.
Their biggest achievement is their failure .. bigger than this conference has been held over Syria and now they are coming back one by one .... but as we know quote "only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

 

[xenon54 out]

This conference is just as much about ''Peace and Security'' as Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is about democracy.