Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stole the show during a Trump administration summit in Warsaw, Poland focused on “peace and security” in the Middle East when he said the meeting would be helpful “to advance the common interest of war with Iran.” Although the the statement was quickly scrubbed from social media and replaced with a message of “combatting Iran,” the Iranian government, and many others, took notice.
The initial statement was made in a press release issued by the Prime Minister’s office this afternoon in Poland.
“From here I am going to a meeting with 60 foreign ministers and envoys of countries from around the world against Iran. What is important about this meeting – and this meeting is not in secret, because there are many of those – is that this is an open meeting with representatives of leading Arab countries, that are sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of war with Iran.”
“What we are doing is pushing and driving Iran from Syria. We are committed to doing this,” Netanyahu also said, “It is cold in Warsaw right now but Israel’s foreign relations are warming up, warming up for the better.”
Yet shortly after a spokesperson for Netanyahu released an updated translation over social media clarifying Netanyahu was not seeking conflict with Iran, rather a detente. While not acknowledging the change in text, the suggestion is that a translator made an ill-placed error. A copy of a recording of the statement was preserved for posterity by the Intercept’s Travis Mannon. In the video, posted to social media by the Israeli government in a now deleted tweet, the prime minister can be heard using the word “war,” not “combat.”
If there was a word blunder on the part of Netanyahu, it already caused damage with Iranian leaders.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif took a screen shot of the transcript sent to reporters in which Netanyahu said he was building allies to go to war with Iran and posted it to social media. “We’ve always known Netanyahu’s illusions. Now, the world – and those attending #WarsawCircus – know, too,” Zarif said.
Zarif, who did not attend the meeting in Poland, also attempted to cast blame on the U.S. over Twitter for an attack on the Revolutionary Guard that killed 27 near the border with Pakistan today. “Is it no coincidence that Iran is hit by terror on the very day that #WarsawCircus begins?” he wrote, “Especially when cohorts of same terrorists cheer it from Warsaw streets & support it with twitter bots? US seems to always make the same wrong choices, but expect different results.”
We’ve always known Netanyahu’s illusions. Now, the world – and those attending #WarsawCircus – know, too pic.twitter.com/0TSDzIak9e
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) February 13, 2019
Is it no coincidence that Iran is hit by terror on the very day that #WarsawCircus begins? Especially when cohorts of same terrorists cheer it from Warsaw streets & support it with twitter bots? US seems to always make the same wrong choices, but expect different results.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) February 13, 2019
The conference comes amid disputes with European allies after the U.S. pulled out of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action last year, the Iran nuclear deal, as well as the Trump administration’s recent announcement to scale back troops in Syria. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the summit last month in Cairo, indicating the administration could seek to renegotiate the deal, however, without Iran’s presence.
“Countries will all come together to focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and security here in this region, and that includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence,” Pompeo said from Egypt.
The secretary was joined in Warsaw by Vice President Mike Pence and Jared Kushner, the senior advisor to the president and his son-in-law. They are expected to also use the forum today and Thursday to seek support for the Trump administration’s unreleased peace plan between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Yet the Palestinian leadership boycotted. Russia, China, Turkey and Lebanon also shunned the summit.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said earlier this week the agenda was “an Israeli-centric fake solution that normalizes Arab-Israeli relations at the expense of Palestinian rights.”
“The U.S. administration is seeking Arab funding for a politically and morally bankrupt ‘economic peace’ that denies the Palestinian people’s rights to national sovereignty, including in Jerusalem, and negates the rights of Palestine refugees,” her statement continued.
For Netanyahu, Warsaw was also an opportunity to strengthen ties with Arab leaders. He held a sideline talk with Oman’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf bin Alawi this morning. The meeting marks the second high level discussion between the two countries in recent months after more than two decades of frayed relations.
“This is an important and new vision for the future. People of the Middle East have suffered a lot because they are stuck to the past. This is a new era for the future and for prosperity for every nation,” bin Alawi said.
Last year Netanyahu flew to Oman for a secret meeting with Sultan Qaboos bin Said that was revealed only after he returned to Israel.
I believe France and Germany gave this sham meeting a miss.Not sure about the UK as Teresa May is likely to avoid p—–g of Donald and harming Global Britain.
It seems Crooked Benji is desperate to make himself look tough, to win his forthcoming elections, and as a bonus, this will also distract his naive people, from the fact that indictments for his crimes, including corruption, is around the corner. He is even willing to get into bed with some of his Arab neighbors, some he has accused of trying to flatten Israel, all to get rid of Iran, because after all after Iran was one of the nations America had on it’s list after decimating Iraq, and Libya. After all, even though Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the US, are guilty of the same crimes they accuse Iran of, the world must ignore the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and Gaza, but focus on Iran who has not attacked a neighbor for the past 200 years, and be mad that they were adhering to their side of the nuclear pact, and it was Trump, at the urging of Netanyahu, who against UN advice, tore up that working deal, for NO reason.
Shame on those Arab nations that are going along with these war criminals. They are helping the axis of Evil decimate yet another Muslim nation, are they too blind to see what has been done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Gaza and Yemen? Do they want yet another Middle Eastern nation shocked and awed, millions dead, millions injured, and millions more refugees, that Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the US, don’t seem to want anyway in their nations. When will these war criminals be stopped?
All these nations better be warned that if they attack Iran, it will not go down easily. Iran has the right to defend itself, and Israel and SA have to take the consequences when it does. Iran is no Iraq, it will respond in ways that Bibi’s cartoon bomb can never describe. The world should be warned that the axis of Evil is once again pounding the war drums, and maybe using fake intelligence, to fool the naive.
It is said that every picture tells a story and this one certainly does. Leaving aside the “politics” of the meeting – on the left a distinctly Middle Eastern looking individual native to the region. On the right a distinctly European looking individual most certainly not native to the region.
When will Americans say enough is enough of Netanyahu determining US Middle East policy?
Netanyahu to US Congress, September 12, 2002: ” If YOU take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I GUARANTEE YOU, that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region, The reverberations of what will happen with the collapse of Saddam’s regime, could very well cause an implosion in a neighbour regime like Iran”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN1HOVLf4C0
Americans and Iraqis who lost many lives and treasure with the destruction of Netanyahu’s WAR against Saddam, cannot make a claim on his GUARANTEE.
Proved dead wrong, the dead number over a MILLION PEOPLE, the consequences still unfolding in this World.
Iran didn’t implode. It increased influence in it’s own part of the World with the illegal US invasion of Iraq.
God did not listen to Netanyahu but Americans do.
Israel’s Netanyahu spoke to a Joint Session of the US Congress in 2015, getting standing ovations by delirious, non-partisan, Republicans and Democrats, calling for the US to reject the Iran Nuclear deal.
Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal on May 8 last year.
What are the possible consequences of the US Declaration of War Trump announced against Iran with the Economic Warfare designed to destroy the Iranian Economy supporting it’s 80 MILLION people before having to resort to bombs?
All of this is happening with Netanyahu meddling in US internal affairs in Public, that can be seen. He was the 1st Head of State to go to Trump Tower after the election.
Putin is blamed as a distraction with constant anti-Russia/Putin propaganda without any visible proof in this grave matter of War or Peace.
Putin is accused by the same US Intelligence Agencies who provided Fake Intelligence when the US went to the UN Security Council asking for the Legal Authority only the UNSC can give, to invade Iraq and remove Saddam. That Legal Authority was denied.
With the delusional belief in it’s exceptionalism, the US invaded Iraq anyway, in violation of International Law, undermining the Global Order represented by the UN since WWII, ushering in the Law of the Jungle to the region and this world.
Netanyahu played a key role in setting up the idiotic and catastrophic US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has pushed for additional reckless actions including using US troops to overthrow the governments of Syria and Iran. How many trillions of dollars is Netanyahu eager to cost the US taxpayers, to facilitate the continuing illegal Jewish colonization of the occupied West Bank?