If you thought the last two years of transatlantic relations were bad, things are about to get even worse. Donald Trump and his hard-charging secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, have scheduled a Middle East security conference for February 13th and 14th. Poland, perhaps the only country in Europe that looks fondly upon Trump as a world leader, will be hosting the two-day affair. Normally, this is the kind of multilateral event European heads-of-state are more than happy to participate in. Not so this one. Trump plan to elevate Iran’s destabilising actions in the region as a principle – perhaps the principle – topic during the conference is giving senior European officials cold feet about turning up. Many see, perhaps rightly, a diplomatic charade instigated by Washington and an attempt to further undermine an Iranian nuclear agreement barely treading water after its third anniversary. Other European diplomats see the choice of Poland as the host country as an attempt by the White House to chip away at the European Union’s unified support of the deal. EU foreign affairs commissioner Federica Mogherini has already said she won’t be there. The French foreign minister may stay away from the event. And Britain and Germany are reportedly in a fix about who will fly to Warsaw.
So why the growing split between the EU and US over Iran? It’s not that the EU sympathises with the mullahs, of course. Far from it; Brussels has been busy cracking down on the Iranian government in recent weeks. The European Council unanimously agreed earlier this month to freeze the assets of two Iranians and the internal security department of the Iranian ministry of intelligence for a series of assassination plots against dissidents on Western European soil.
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