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Russia rejects US plans for defense shield |
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Written by Staff Writer
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Jul 11, 2008 at 09:34 AM |
Russia has today reiterated its opposition to US plans to deploy missile defences in eastern Europe. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the results of recent Iranian missile tests proved that a defence shield in Europe was unnecesarry to protect the US from rogue (ie Iran) states.
"The tests in Iran have only confirmed that Iran at the moment has rockets with a range of up to 2,000 km [1,243 miles]. That confirms what we have said before," he said.
His statement follows a claim yesterday from the director of the US missile defence agency, Lieutenant General Henry Obering, that the Iranian tests "emphasise the urgency of what we are doing".
"So what will they be able to do in three or four, five years?" Obering asked. "They're increasing the range of these missiles. I believe very strongly that they will have the ability to target most of Europe in the next couple of years with these missiles."
Lavrov today told reporters in Moscow that Russia continued to be "convinced of the invented nature of discussions about the Iranian rocket threat as a motive for the deployment of the missile shield in Europe". |
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