Missile Defences in Poland, Czech republic to counter Iran and North Korea!

Imagine the US says that not only can the system in Czech Rep. and Poland meet threats from Iran but also North Korea. It is fortunate Rice is black so you can't see her blush when she makes such statements. Surely the threat is Russia. Do they think Putin is really that gullible to think it is not. Maybe Putin should try placing such a defence in Cuba.


Missile shield in Poland, Czech Republic to counter Iran: Rice by David Millikin
Wed Feb 21, 3:06 PM ET



BERLIN (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a planned missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic was designed to counter a threat from Iran and posed no danger to Russia.


"We have a growing Iranian missile threat and we need to be able to deal with that," Rice told reporters after talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"Everybody understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat which is quite pronounced there need to be ways to deal with that problem.

"These missile systems are for purposes having to do with post-9/11 threats," Rice said.

Russia has strongly objected to the US plan to station missile interceptors and a radar system on its western borders, in countries which used to be part of the communist bloc.

But Rice said Poland and the Czech Republic "make their own decisions" and they had decided to participate in the system.

The top US diplomat said she regretted that a high-ranking Russian general, Nikolai Solovtsov, had threatened this week that the two former Soviet states would be targetted by Russia if they hosted the system.

"I think it is unfortunate that the Russian head of strategic rocket forces would come out and say that somehow Poland and the Czech Republic would now be on the target list of Russia.

"I think that was an extremely unfortunate comment," Rice said.

Rice, who in her previous role as national security advisor was closely involved in long-range defence strategy, dismissed suggestions that the planned system posed a threat to Russia.

"Anyone who knows anything about this will tell you there is no way that 10 interceptors in Poland and radar sites in the Czech Republic are a threat to Russia, that they are somehow going to diminish Russia's deterrent of thousands of warheads."

Washington says the system would also be able to intercept attacks from North Korea.

The threat from the Russian general prompted an angry response from Poland and the Czech Republic.

"It is clearly an attempt to intimidate," Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Tuesday.

The row over the missile shield is one of a series of disputes between the United States and Russia which also include disagreements over the expansion of NATO.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a recent speech to a high-level security conference in Munich to attack the US as a reckless "unipolar" power which he said had made the world more dangerous by pursuing policies that were fuelling an arms race.

France, a US partner in NATO, called on Wednesday for a "true dialogue" over the shield.

Iran on Wednesday ignored a UN deadline to suspend its nuclear reprocessing activities, prompting Rice to urge the Islamic republic to reconsider its defiance and accept an offer of better relations with Washington.

She re-affirmed a US offer, first made last May, to end a 27-year rupture in American-Iranian relations if they comply with the UN conditions.