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."

FMI: www.whitehouse.gov, www.defenselink.mil