Poland has no plans to join Middle East conflict, says FM
Poland is not planning to engage in military operations against Iran, as the country is currently absorbed with Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, Poland's immediate neighbourhood, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has told Rzeczpospolita daily.
Asked whether Poland would join Israel and the United States in their war against Iran, Sikorski said in an interview published on Thursday that there were "no such plans", although Polish and American interests were largely aligned.
"Both the [Polish] government and the president have expressed political solidarity with our most important ally, but also with allies and friends in Turkey, Cyprus, and the Persian Gulf region," he said. "Poland has also always stood for the security of Israel within the internationally recognised borders," he added.
Sikorski denied that Poland was going to provide access to the military base in Redzikowo, northern Poland, for the US to carry out defensive strikes against Iran. He argued that the agreements concerning the installation of US defence capabilities in Redzikowo which Sikorski negotiated and signed contained "a clause that it [the installation] was meant to detect and neutralise rockets that could endanger Europe and the United States."
"Iran did not launch any such rockets," Sikorski said.
The US missile base in Redzikowo, part of NATO's missile defence system, opened in November 2024. It is the first permanent installation of the United States Armed Forces in Poland, intended to protect the US and its European allies from ballistic missile attacks, mainly from Iran.
Since the Israeli and US attacks on Iran began on February 28, Iranian forces have fired two ballistic missiles into Turkish airspace. Both were shot down by NATO air defences over the eastern Mediterranean. (PAP)
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