In memory of Hussein

Iranian missile will help Americans

Yesterday, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar presented a new argument to supporters of the deployment of American missile defense (BMD) in Europe. He announced the development of a new ballistic missile, the Ashura, with a range of up to 2 thousand kilometers. The new product covers the entire territory of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and is able to reach Egypt and Bulgaria, not to mention the main regional ally of the United States - Israel. The name of the missile comes from an important religious event for Shiite Iran: Ashura is the name given to the mourning ceremony in memory of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who, according to legend, was killed in 680 and is especially revered by the Shiites.

The US plans to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and ten interceptor missiles in Poland in 2011-2012, ostensibly to counter missile attacks from Iran. Russia does not believe in the reality of such a threat and strongly opposes the US plans. However, Tehran's announcement of the successful development of its missile program reduces the likelihood of a compromise between Moscow and Washington. The heads of the military and diplomatic departments of Russia and the United States discussed the topic of missile defense in October in Moscow . They will soon hold another meeting on this issue - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced this yesterday in Washington. However, the new Iranian missile gave the United States a welcome reason to once again talk about the need to deploy missile defense facilities.

“The Ashura missile developed by Iran is a deterrent weapon,” senior adviser to the Russian PIR Center, retired lieutenant general of the Foreign Intelligence Service Gennady Evstafiev, told Vremya Novostei. - However, its appearance creates an unfavorable background for negotiations on missile defense and the Iranian problem in general. “Ashura” will provide an opportunity to make noise around the “Iranian threat.”

President Vladimir Putin this summer proposed that the United States abandon the deployment of missile defense in Eastern Europe and instead jointly use the radar station (radar) station (radar) leased by Russia from Azerbaijan in Gabala and the radar station under construction in Armavir. The Russian side suggested that the Americans create centers for the exchange of information on missile defense in Moscow and Brussels. In October, the Americans took the initiative to make the radar stations in Gabala and Armavir an addition to US missile defense facilities, and also expressed their readiness to allow Russian specialists to visit missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

However, the written response to the Russian proposals that arrived in Moscow from Washington last week turned out to be disappointing. “It is already clear that this is a significant rollback from what was said by American representatives in Moscow at the beginning of October at the “two plus two” meeting,” Sergei Lavrov said yesterday. “We are no longer talking about transparency and confidence-building measures in relation to those facilities that the United States still unilaterally wants to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic. We are no longer talking about a joint analysis of possible threats as the basis for joint work. If joint work means the continuation of unilateral plans for the construction of missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe, and we are only invited to help these plans and provide the information we have for this, then this is probably not what we mean,” he noted. head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“The conclusion suggests itself that the United States is not ready to negotiate with Russia on the missile defense issue. Washington is interested in maintaining the negotiation process without filling it with specific content,” Gennady Evstafiev noted to VN. In addition, the parliamentary elections in Poland in October were “unsuccessful for the United States” - the conservative pro-American Law and Justice party was defeated. “Now Warsaw is more interested in the Pentagon organizing a modern air defense system than a missile defense system. Funds must be obtained to deploy missile defense, but neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives will fund missile defense without negotiations with Russia. So Washington is demonstrating its activity to congressmen,” says the Russian expert of VN.

Nikolai Zlobin, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Washington Institute of World Security, suggested in a conversation with VN that in October, “when making his verbal proposals, Pentagon head Robert Gates initially proceeded from the fact that they were unrealizable. He had to show that Russia takes a stubborn, unconstructive position, and therefore the United States is forced to continue to implement its plans in the field of missile defense. Washington is seeking to shift responsibility for further developments of events onto Moscow. It is important for the United States to demonstrate to the Europeans that they are ready to make compromises, and Moscow is preventing these compromises.” According to Mr. Zlobin, “the maximum that the United States can do for Russia is to slightly slow down the implementation of missile defense plans.”

Iran's new successes in the missile field could also affect Tehran's relations with Moscow for the worse. Yesterday it was announced that the next meeting of the Russian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation would be postponed from the end of November to the second ten days of December. It was supposed to discuss, among other things, the issue of Russia's construction of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr.

Victor VOLODIN, Petr ISKENDEROV