Washington has resumed its plans to build a missile shield in Europe and is about to sign a treaty with one of the Southern European countries on deploying a radar station as part of its air defense system. The new facility, aimed to counter a possible threat from Iran, may be commissioned as early as next year in either Turkey or Bulgaria.
Listen to audio here
Statements of the Pentagon and the White House on the approaching deployment of a radar station in the Black Sea basin may substantially aggravate the situation. This move will obviously complicate Washington’s bilateral relations with Moscow, with regard to Russia’s sharp criticism towards US missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic. President Barack Obama had to considerably alter the American ABM concept to reset relationships with the Russian side. Although the new dispute is unlikely to start as yet, Russia is deeply concerned over US air defense systems close to its border.
Iran, whose alleged aggression America intends to promptly respond to, will also be dissatisfied with the new plans concerning missile defense elements, given Washington’s active cooperation with Israel in this area. The US it now considering the possibility of deploying another radar station on its territory. This may be followed by Tehran’s refusal to resume negotiations on its nuclear program.
The place where the new radar will be deployed is therefore by no means unimportant. In this respect, as one of the chief mediators in disputes between Iran and the West, Turkey may provoke a conflict involving Ankara and Tehran. It is worth mentioning here that Turkish diplomats recently managed to persuade Iran to enrich most of its uranium fuel in third countries. Senior Fellow with the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations Vladimir Yevseyev believes Tehran will exert every effort to avoid this conflict:
“Iran will apparently convince Ankara of rejecting the deployment of a US radar station. This is also evidenced by the fact that both sides are closely cooperating to fight against the Kurdish opposition and conducting joint warfare.”
Apart from this, Turkey has some other arguments, according to Director General of the Russian Political Information Center Alexei Mukhin:
“Relying upon its own development concept in the Mediterranean region, Turkey is behaving somewhat willfully at the NATO level and will not therefore tolerate the radar deployment. Bulgaria appears as a more profitable and probable variant, in light of Washington’s strong influence on that country.”
Many Bulgarians, like the Czech and the Polish, are fiercely opposed to the US plans. Thus, the Pentagon’s decision on deploying a radar station in southern Europe may have severe negative consequences. In spite of this, America will not give up its plans to field ballistic missile interceptors in Romania by 2015.
