Obama 'ready to drop shield plans for Russian help on Iran'

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http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090302/120375219.html

Obama 'ready to drop shield plans for Russian help on Iran'
16:16 | 02/ 03/ 2009



MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti) - Washington has told Moscow that Russian help in resolving Iran's nuclear program would make its missile shield plans for Europe unnecessary, a Russian daily said on Monday, citing White House sources.

U.S. President Barack Obama made the proposal on Iran in a letter to his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, Kommersant said, referring to unidentified U.S. officials.

Iran's controversial nuclear program was cited by the U.S. as one of the reasons behind its plans to deploy a missile base in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic. The missile shield has been strongly opposed by Russia, which views it as a threat to its national security. The dispute has strained relations between the former Cold War rivals, already tense over a host of other differences.

The leaders have exchanged letters and had a telephone conversation since Obama was sworn into office in January, Kommersant said. The first high-level Russia-U.S. meeting will take place later this week, when Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva.

Moscow has not yet responded to the proposal by Obama, the paper said, adding that a decision was unlikely to be made during Lavrov and Clinton's meeting.

The issue is likely to be discussed when Obama and Medvedev meet in London on April 2 on the sidelines of the G20 summit of world leaders to address the financial crisis. Earlier reports said Medvedev had also invited the U.S. leader to visit Russia and the date of Obama's first visit to the largest country in the world could be announced in the British capital.

In an interview on Sunday with Spanish media, Medvedev said he hoped to discuss the issue of missile defense with Obama in London. He also said he hoped the new U.S. administration would display a "more creative approach" to the issue than its predecessors.

"We have received signals from our American colleagues," Medvedev said. "I expect those signals will turn into specific proposals. I hope to discuss the issue, which is extremely important for Europe, with U.S. President Barack Obama."

The United States and other Western nations suspect Tehran of secretly seeking nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is purely aimed at generating electricity. However, unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, Obama has stated a preference for diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on the NBC television channel on Sunday that the Islamic Republic was not close to building a nuclear bomb. "They're not close to a stockpile, they're not close to a weapon at this point, and so there is some time," Gates said.

Gates also said that the while more sanctions should be imposed against Iran, the door should not be closed to diplomacy.
 

nitesh

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This is an interesting development. US will not surround Russia in turn Russia will help US in Iran and Afghanistan. Both happy :)
 
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In reality this plan has not practical in defending Europe it may have been a threat by USA to get more support from Russia.
 

A.V.

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This is an interesting development. US will not surround Russia in turn Russia will help US in Iran and Afghanistan. Both happy :)
surely this is an important development. but more that the practical use it is in question it looks more like diplomacy at its best.the truth cannot be hidden the race is on for central asia a traditional russian stronghold. with the american presence in iraq and afganistan the russians started helping the iranians counter the us presence now surely the us underestimated the relationship between the russians and iranians. the recent developments in iran concering the nuclear power plant and the other missile technologies the us dosent want to confront a third front in iran together with iraq and afganistan, so they want the russians to back off from supplying key elements to iran.
later once the dust subsides the us will be back with the sheild plans the russians already anticipated this us move and so they took the oppurtunity and were the first to declare that they were the first to move out of the iskander deployment in kalinlingrad taking with them all the credit to diffuse the tensions.


welcome to the coldwar part 2 .
 

A.V.

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Russia ready to drop Iskander plans if U.S. scraps missile shield

MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian defense minister reiterated on Tuesday that Moscow would not place Iskander missiles on the EU's doorstep if Washington abandoned its plans to deploy missile defenses in Central Europe.

"If the deployment [of U.S. missile defense elements] is suspended, we will not start the retaliatory measures we planned," Anatoly Serdyukov said.

Serdyukov was speaking after a Moscow meeting with his German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung, to discuss issues of bilateral military cooperation, including the rail and air transit of military cargo for German troops in Afghanistan through Russia.

"We are ready to continue discussions on this [missile defense] issue, including in the framework of the Russia-NATO Council," the minister added.

Washington has agreed with Warsaw and Prague on plans to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic by 2013. The United States says the defenses are needed to deter possible strikes from "rogue states" such as Iran.

Russia has consistently opposed the missile shield as a threat to its national security and President Dmitry Medvedev threatened in November to deploy Iskander-M missiles in the country's westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania, if the shield was put into operation.

Top Russian officials have repeatedly expressed hope that U.S. President Barack Obama will not follow through with his predecessor's missile defense plans.

The Kremlin denied on Tuesday media reports claiming that a letter sent by Obama to Medvedev contained new missile defense proposals.

The reports cited unnamed sources as saying the U.S. president had told his Russian counterpart that Russian help in resolving the issue of Iran's nuclear program would make Washington's plans for a missile shield in Central Europe unnecessary.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090303/120399917.html
 
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Russia is being to quick to drop the Iskander plans what if the next US administration retracts? but not renewing the START treaty is a good move by the Russians.
 

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