Dozens of foreign ministers and other leaders from all over the world were making their way to Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday evening to take part in a summit organized by the energetic U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.
The summit is officially dedicated to promoting peace and stability in the Middle East. In actuality, it has been convened to put together an anti-Iran bloc in the Middle East and its environs. The direct result will be a picture of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing alongside several Arab foreign ministers. The indirect result will mean that the EU is now weaker.
In a classic divide-and-conquer move, Pompeo is holding the summit in Warsaw. Poland is the biggest of the European nations that are battling the decrees from Brussels. As such, Poland is – or at least wants to be – a counterbalance to well-known Western powers, including the two main actors in the EU these days, Germany and France. Pompeo is intentionally backing Poland, the rebel.
It's no coincidence, therefore, that the German and French foreign ministers are skipping the summit. As is EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini, the architect of Europe's plan to skirt American sanctions on Iran. Pompeo is putting Mogherini at a disadvantage mainly because of that plan. However, the foreign secretary of Britain – which will soon be leaving the EU – is attending. He knows that a small spat with Brussels is preferable to a major fall-out with Washington.
Mogherini isn't sitting idly by. Two weeks from now, she plans to convene an international summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt that is designed to present a European show of force in the Middle East. Unlike the Warsaw summit, Israel will not be participating.
But it's clear even to Mogherini that the EU is in trouble. Britain is about to leave. Italy and France are close to cutting off ties with one another. The migrant crisis continues to engulf the continent, and all eyes are on the May elections, which are expected to bolster extremist forces on both the Left and the Right and shake up the EU, which isn't very unified anymore.
