Media: US put forward an ultimatum to Poland because of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance
Because of Poland's dispute with Israel, the US administration sent a signal to Warsaw that Polish authorities should not expect to meet either President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence until the crisis is resolved, reports the Polish newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
The newspaper’s sources close to Polish diplomacy said that "the United States put forward an ultimatum" and the high-level meetings are "frozen" until the Polish-Israeli dispute is resolved.
In May, the chairmanship in the UN Security Council passes to Poland for a month. On this occasion, President Andrzej Duda will visit New York and Chicago. The visit of the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is also planned.
The Polish Foreign Ministry considers this to be one of the most important diplomatic events of 2018. Efforts were made to organize a meeting with either President Trump or Vice President Pence. However, since the start of the crisis in Polish-Israeli relations, the White House sent reserved signals.
"The Americans have delicately said that there will be a problem with the organization of meetings with senior US leaders," the source said.
In early February, President Duda visited South Korea during the Winter Olympics, where Vice President Pence was also in attendance. According to the newspaper, Polish officials attempted to organize a meeting between Duda and Pence, but it never happened. The office of the Polish President has not yet commented on the publication of this information.
The amendments to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance came into force on March 1. The 2018 amendment made further changes, including the addition of Article 55a, which makes it a crime to "ascribe Nazi crimes to the Polish Nation or to the Polish State"; and Article 2a, concerning crimes perpetrated against Poland or Poles by Ukrainian nationalists. Israel opposed the new amendments to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance. The US condemned the decision of the President of Poland to sign the amendments.