The United States plans to shelve plans for a missile-defence system based in Poland and the Czech Republic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
It is a move ”likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe”, the report said.
”The US will base its decision on a determination that Iran’s long-range missile programme has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental US and major European capitals,” the report said, citing unnamed current and former US officials.
”The findings, expected to be completed as early as next week following a 60-day review ordered by President Barack Obama, would be a major reversal from the Bush administration, which pushed aggressively to begin construction of the Eastern European system before leaving office in January,” the report added.
A Pentagon duty officer contacted by Agence France-Presse had no immediate comment.
Moscow, a staunch opponent of the system which it has seen as a threat to its own security, said any move to stop it would be ”good news”.
”We are awaiting confirmation of these reports. In principle, such a development would serve the interest of developing our bilateral relationship with the United States,” a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, the Interfax news agency reported.
But the source added: ”If the United States is really intending to refrain from its plans to place missile defence facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic then that is, of course, good news.”
”We are expecting that in the review [by the Obama administration] all our concerns will be taken into account.”
Former president George Bush’s administration proposed the system to counter its perceived threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon that could be carried by its increasingly sophisticated missiles.
The New York Times reported on August 29 that the US government had developed possible alternative plans for the missile defence shield.
Citing unnamed administration officials, it said the change would please Russia and Germany but could sour relations with US allies in Eastern Europe.
Obama administration officials have said they hoped to complete their months-long review of the planned antimissile system as early as September, possibly in time for Obama to present ideas to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting in New York next week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the Times report said. — AFP
