(13 Feb 2019) U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met Polish President Andrzej Duda at the presidential palace in Warsaw as the U.S. and Poland kicked off an international conference on the Middle East Wednesday.
The conference is being held amid uncertainty over its aims, coupled with questions about what it will deliver.
Initially it was billed by President Donald Trump's administration as an Iran-focused meeting, but the organizers significantly broadened its scope to include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the fight against the Islamic State group, Syria and Yemen.
The shift was designed in part to boost participation after some invitees balked at an Iran-centric event when many, particularly in Europe, are trying to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal after last year's U.S. withdrawal and re-imposition of sanctions in its self-described "maximum pressure campaign."
Yet the agenda for the discussions contains no hint of any concrete action that might result beyond creating "follow-on working groups," and many of the roughly 60 countries participating will be represented at levels lower than foreign minister.
Pence's stop in Poland comes as Warsaw is lobbying Washington for a permanent US base on its soil as fears in the region run high over a resurgent Russia.
The vice president will also visit Auschwitz and other historic sites and attend the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany over the weekend.
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