US to scrap part of missile shield
Updated on 17 September 2009
President Obama announces the US is to scrap the controversial US missile defence shield, saying there are faster, more flexible ways of protecting the country's allies from rogue states like Iran.
In one of the sharpest breaks yet with the Bush administration, plans to base the system in Poland and the Czech republic will not now go ahead.
Gordon Brown says he strongly supports the decision, but critics have immediately accused Mr Obama of giving into Russian pressure.
Moscow has said it would welcome the decision to scrap plans for ground-based interceptors in Poland and a related radar site in the Czech Republic.
But it is unclear if renewed US promises of support will ease fears among eastern European countries, many of whom had seen the missile defence shield as a symbol of US commitment to defend against encroachment by Russia on its former satellite states.
The previous Bush administration had pushed for the shield to protect against the possibility of Iranian long-range nuclear missiles.
But Russia has seen the project as a threat to its own security.
The shield would have seen missile interceptors housed at a specially built base in Gorsko in Poland, while the Czech Republic would have housed an early warning radar station in the Brdy region, just South of Prague.
The US says its missile defence system, planned by former President George W Bush, was intended to destroy incoming missiles potentially coming from Iran and North Korea.
Including various interceptors planned for Canada, Alaska the UK and Greenland, the US planned to instal 10 more in silos situated in Poland. They also planned to build a radar station in the Czech Republic because, the US says, eastern Europe has a gap in the defence shield.
In theory, the system uses a network of space-based heat-sensing satellites that can detect ballistic missiles fired at the US. A rocket is then fired to intercept and destroy the incoming warhead in the air.
Obama officials have stressed that the Europe missile defence plan has not been abandoned altogether but that it is being redesigned to meet the more immediate Iranian threat.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asks Channel 4 News International Editor Lindsey Hilsum about the significance of today's development.
KGM: So why are they going to do this?
LH: Well, what they’re likely to say when they make this announcement this afternoon is that it’s because Iran hasn’t developed long-range missiles as fast as they were expecting, and therefore it may be presented as a cost-cutting measure and as something that’s not necessary.
But what seems likely is that this is something to get the Russians more on the Americans’ side when it comes to sanctions against Iran.
The Americans and the Europeans are going to open negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme and other issues on 1 October. They want to be able to threaten Iran with serious sanctions – and if they don’t have Russia on board, they can’t do it.
So this is a sop to the Russians.
KGM: Right. So will it work in that respect? I mean, what will the effect be? Will America be undefended? Is Iranian missile technology really stalled and behind?
LH: Well, it’s correct that the Iranians don’t have that kind of long-range missile at the moment. And some people thought this missile shield wouldn’t work anyway. And the Americans are sure to come up with different ways of defending against any potential attack from Iran.
But I think what the Americans see as the critical question at the moment is to have a serious threat against Iran if it continues to develop its nuclear programme, which is what the Americans and the Europeans say they’re doing.
They want to be able to impose sanctions on refined gasoline products.
But the Russians have a border with Iran. So even if the Americans and Europeans block the ports, the Russians would be able to get stuff over by train.
They want to have the Russians onside. So this is a serious way of saying to the Russians: “Look, what really matters to us is Iran. We have to have you onside. We have to be able to threaten these sanctions.”
We’ll have to see whether the Russians are really going to go along with that.
Jon Snow speaks to Charles Ferguson, a missile defence specialist with the Council on Foreign Relations is in Washington, John Hannah, Former National Security Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and Laza Kekic, director of East European affairs at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
