Mon, Mar 09, 2009
Secretary of State Clinton Maintains Shield Is Not A Threat To
Russia
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the United States'
plans for establishment of a missile defense shield in Poland and
the Czech Republic at a press conference in Brussels, held after
last week's first round of talks with NATO foreign ministers.
"The Czech Republic and Poland in our view have been very
visionary and looking over the horizon of what we have to be
prepared for, if we are not successful in preventing the
acquisition and proliferation of these weapons of mass
destruction," Clinton said.
The EU Observer reports that despite Moscow’s claims to
the contrary, Clinton asserted the shield is designed to protect
against threats coming from Iran and terrorist networks, not
Russia.
"Our task is to dissuade them [Iran], deter them, prevent them
from acquiring a nuclear weapon which given the range of the
missiles they currently have access to threatens Europe and Arab
neighbors in the Gulf, not the United States," Clinton said.
As ANN reported, a recent letter from
President Obama to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev implied the US
might be willing to abandon the planned missile defense shield, if
Russia agreed to help deter Iran from acquiring nuclear
weapons.
"We have long offered Russia the opportunity to work with us on
missile defense, which is a very important tool in our defensive
arsenal, in the future," Clinton said. "Unfortunately, there is a
great deal of proliferation of weapons of all kinds. Just as we had
a defensive posture against the old Soviet Union in the 20th
century, we must now have a defensive posture against the new
threats of the 21 century."
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