Spring of freedom

Warsaw, Poland  Next month’s Poland conference, focused on Middle East security and containing the negative influence of the Iranian regime, has become increasingly a source of concern for the Iranian regime. But a particular point that always reveals the truth behind the Iranian mullahs’ tough play about stability and power is their fear of their main organized opposition, PMOI/MEK and NCRI, which shows boldly among Iranian officials’ concerns for the Poland summit. On January 19, Mardom Salari newspaper, close to Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani’s faction, showed the regime’s fear of PMOI becoming involved in the Warsaw summit and wrote: “PMOI becoming active isn’t a good sign.” Meanwhile, newspapers close to Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei are already declaring the defeat of the summit before it has started out of fear that it would succeed. “The anti-Iranian summit of Poland is a failure even before it even begins,” writes Keyhan newspaper, widely...

French president Emmanuel Macron, - A recent warning made by French President Emmanuel Macron that Paris will launch strikes if chemical weapons are used against civilians in the Syrian conflict, has led to discussions about Iran’s ballistic missiles, which are of no less importance. The new element in Macron’s Feb. 13 speech was his desire to organize an international meeting on Syria in the coming weeks on the eradication of “the ballistic activities in Syria that puts in danger all the regional powers.” He also said the use of Iranian-linked missiles in Yemen and Syria needed to be addressed because they were a security problem for French allies. It was the first time Macron spoke about his country’s willingness to organize a meeting, “not necessarily in Paris” to discuss about Iran’s ballistic missiles. However, his desire to hold such a meeting surprised French diplomats. Several sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that concerned officials have not yet discussed t...