Final Word from Thursday, February 14, 2019

On the first day in Warsaw yesterday of the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East (informally known as the Iran conference), Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter that leading Arab countries were "sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of war with Iran." Within an hour he had changed the last three words to read, "combatting Iran," but the message was already received. The CR hasn't been very receptive so far to warmongering with regard to Iran. Foreign Min. Tomáš Petříček has criticized Donald Trump's unilateral policy of withdrawing from the nuclear deal and made another statement yesterday by sending a deputy, Aleš Chmelař, to the Warsaw conference. Yet when you examine the military equipment that the U.S. is pushing hard to sell to the Czechs (attack helicopters, armored vehicles), you see that it befits more a ground war with Iran than it does a cyber war with China. [ Czech Republic United States of America Mike Pompeo Mike Pence ]