WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Poland would jointly host an international ministerial meeting on the Middle East issue next month in Warsaw, the State Department said in a statement on Friday.
The meeting, called "Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East," will be held on Feb. 13-14, and countries from various regions have been invited to participate.
The ministerial meeting will address a range of critical issues including terrorism and extremism, missile development and proliferation, maritime trade and security, and threats posed by proxy groups across the region, the statement said.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview on Friday that the meeting would "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."
The top U.S. diplomat is on an eight-day trip to the Middle East amid rising uncertainty and complexity in the region following the White House's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
Pompeo's speech in Egypt on Thursday underscored that the future U.S. Middle East strategy would overwhelmingly focus on countering Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed the planned meeting as an "anti-Iranian circus event."
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz tweeted on Friday that the Middle East is a global security challenge, and the upcoming ministerial meeting in Warsaw would help to develop a common framework for action.
