Iran's Foreign Minister Leaves For Munich Security Conference

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian left Tehran Friday morning for Germany to participate in the 58th Munich Security Conference (MSC).

Amir-Abdollahian is set to join many world leaders who have converged for the three-day event annual security gathering, known as "Davos for defense", which kicks off on Friday at the luxurious Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich.

The weekend conference will be dominated by the Ukraine crisis, but the event serves as a platform for other global issues.

Roundtables on Saturday, the main day of events, will also address the fate of the Vienna talks to revive Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and the fragile security situation in the Sahel.

Both issues have flared up this week with reports about the finalization of a new US-Iranian deal and the French withdrawal of troops from Mali after almost a decade fighting Islamist insurgents.

Over the weekend there will also be high-profile panels on cryptocurrency, climate change and the pandemic.

The chairman of the conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, has told reporters that he could not recall a time when there were "so many overlapping crises".

This is the first no-show by a Russian delegation in years, highlighting how much East-West relations have deteriorated.

The official agenda of the Iranian foreign minister is not announced but much of the action is likely to take place on the sidelines of the main stage.