Participants at the Middle East conference at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, February 13, 2019 (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)


I joined Monocle 24’s The Daily on Thursday night to review the Trump Administration’s summit, held in Poland, for efforts at regime change in Iran.

The meeting did not go well, at least from the standpoint of any “coalition of the willing”. Strident remarks by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence ended with Pence’s derision of European countries for pursuing a limited Special Purpose Vehicle, bypassing US sanctions for trade in Iranian oil and other commodities and goods.

Iran Daily, Feb 5: Tehran Turns Against Europe’s Vital Economic Link

Many European states — including France and Germany, both among the 5+1 Powers who reached the July 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran — did not send senior officials.

The long-touted mission of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for an Israel-Palestine plan? We’re still waiting.

So what was achieved? Well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — fighting political and legal battles at home — brought developing private connections between Israel and some Arab states into the open, appearing along high-level Arab representatives.

But, far from offering “stability”, the evolving anti-Iran link may provide the opposite.

Listen from 9:40: