Russia Minister Says Iran Deal Makes NATO Nuke Shield Obsolete

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says NATO-U.S. missile defense project no longer needed now that Iran agreed to nuke deal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Always looking for ways to criticize the NATO-U.S. missile defense shield on the Russian border, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that the latest Iran nuke bargain means the Western defense project is no longer needed.
“If the agreement on Iran is implemented, the reason named as a necessity to establish a missile defense system in Europe will drop away,” Lavrov said in Rome today.
The missile defense system Lavrov, and the Kremlin, loves to hate is to be deployed in Poland between 2015 and 2018. NATO and Washington say the missile station was designed to counter a nuclear Iran. Russian officials have been up in arms over the project since 2010 and have reiterated their demands numerous times for legally binding agreements guaranteeing that Russia’s strategic nuclear forces would not be targeted.
But this weekend, Iran struck a bargain with the Group of Six nations after four days of discussion. A formal signing ceremony was held in the United Nations building in Geneva on Sunday involving representatives from China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and United States, led by the coordinator for the group, European Commission foreign relations head Catherine Ashton.
The Sunday deal calls for a freeze on Iran’s nuclear program, in particular work on enrichment facilities, in exchange for a relaxation of the economic sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. The deal is interim and envisages further negotiations to hammer out measures to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, Israel’s Haaretz reported.
The deal came just four days after a poll of Americans showed the vast majority supported softening sanctions on Iran in exchange for an end to its nuclear enrichment programs.
Sixty-four percent of Americans backed a diplomatic agreement to ease sanctions with just 36% saying they were confident that such a deal would prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin praised the agreement.
“The agreement is a balanced list of measures and it will certainly have a positive influence on the development of the international situation, especially in the Middle Eastern region,” he said in a statement as quoted by the Kremlin on Sunday.