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U.S. Rejected Qabala Radar
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Henry Obering rebuffed Tuesday the Kremlin’s proposal to abandon plans of stationing missile defense installations in Eastern Europe in exchange for the access to Qabala Radar Station in Azerbaijan. Henry Obering heads the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and he stepped up with the very tough comments following the tour of the U.S. experts to Qabala. As to Russia, our Foreign Ministry acknowledged yesterday that they proved unable to bring together the positions of Moscow and Washington in the recent months.
”We do not anticipate, and cannot see, that what they are proposing can take the place for what we are proposing for Poland and the Czech Republic,” Henry Obering announced in Washington Tuesday, when meeting Europe’s diplomats. The specially prepared speech of lieutenant general was to make clear to Europe that stationing interceptors in Poland and a radar in Czechia is inevitable and no alternative of Moscow will guarantee the proper protection against the nuclear threat of Iran.
According to Obering, the conclusion of the United States is that Qabala isn’t capable of performing functions to be taken by the U.S. radar in the Czech Republic when monitoring potential missile attacks from some rogue states, including Iraq.
As a result of Obering’s rhetoric, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislyak had to acknowledge yesterday that they failed to bring together positions of the parties. “The process hasn’t been completed and there will be new rounds,” the diplomat gloomily concluded.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers and defense ministers of both countries will meet in Moscow already in mid.-October to again raise the problem of the U.S. missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. But judging by the latest events, that get-together of officials is doomed to failure.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 20, 2007
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