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Netanyahu to meet Pence, Pompeo in Warsaw for Mideast summit

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: Talks will include “an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Tel Aviv, April 2018. Photo by Haim Zach/GPO.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Tel Aviv, April 2018. Photo by Haim Zach/GPO.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at this week’s summit in Warsaw concerning the Middle East.

At the beginning of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said his talks with U.S. officials will be about “how to continue preventing Iran from entrenching in Syria, how to thwart its aggression in the region and, above all, how to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.”

Pompeo said that the summit will include “an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence.”

Additionally, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, and special envoy Jason Greenblatt are scheduled to meet with foreign officials at the conference to brief them on the highly anticipated Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal, which Pompeo said will be released after the Israeli elections on April 9.

Neither the Palestinians nor representation from Iran was invited to the conference.

Initially, the conference was advertised as forum to combat the Iranian threat, but due to backlash from several U.S. allies and Iranian pressure on Poland, it was rebranded as “The Ministerial Conference to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East.”

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