IRAN URGES INDIA, CHINA & RUSSIA TO COUNTER NATO MISSILE SYSTEM

Published time: April 16, 2015 10:29
Edited time: April 16, 2015 13:15

USS Higgins with Aegis interceptor systems (Reuters / Atef Safadi)

Iran has announced its readiness to cooperate with Russia, China and
India on the issue of NATO’s missile shield and related threats from
the military bloc, the head of its defense ministry said in Moscow.

“I’d like to support the idea of developing multifaceted defense
cooperation between China, Iran, India and Russia to counter NATO
eastwards expansion and installing a missile shield in Europe,”
Hossein Dehghan said on Thursday, at an international security
conference in Moscow.

Read moreTehran threat? Russia questions US, EU motives behind missile
shield in Europe

Despite a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program, the US is still going
to site its missile defense installations in Europe. They are being
deployed over a perceived threat from “nuclear Iran” – a pretext
which Moscow called a “fairytale.”

“The threat to NATO countries posed by the proliferation of ballistic
missiles continues to increase… the framework [of the Iran nuclear
program] agreement does not change that fact,” NATO spokeswoman Oana
Lungescu told Sputnik.

According to Russia, the controversial missile shield in Europe is
staying because “the Missile Defense System was never about Iran.”

READ MORE: US commissions ‘crucial’ NATO missile shield facility
in Romania

“This serves as yet more proof that references to the ‘Iranian
[missile] threat’ served as a smokescreen, whereas the genuine
objective is the creation of an anti-missile program with quite a
different purpose,”the Russian Foreign Ministry wrote.

The US has for years insisted the missile defense system is needed
for protection against potential missiles from rogue states, such
as North Korea and Iran. Moscow strongly objected to new unilateral
NATO military installations, citing national security threats. Russia
proposed the creation of a joint system, but Washington rejected it.

READ MORE: Iran deploys ‘real Iron Dome’ missile defense system