Iranian Officials Not Invited to Munich Security Conference

The chairman of the Munich Security Conference says Iranian and Russian government officials have not been invited to this year's annual event, because they had not shown an interest in meaningful dialogue.

But Christoph Heusgen also said that Iranian and Russian nongovernmental organizations had been invited to the conference, which will take place in the southern German city on February 16-18 with the attendance of dozens of heads of states, ministers, lawmakers, senior defense figures and international organizations.

The event will open four months after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which has heightened tensions across the Middle East as Western nations battle Iran-backed militias in Iraq, Yemen and Syria, and two years after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Heusgen told German press agency DPA he hoped the meeting would discuss these conflicts as well as others that received less attention but were causing major humanitarian crises such as the 10-month-old war in Sudan.