By RIA Novosti
Tokyo : The joint use of a radar in Azerbaijan, proposed by Russia to Washington, would not remove the threat of a missile attack from Iran, the US missile defence chief said Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed earlier this month that the US use a powerful radar station Russia leases from Azerbaijan, which borders Iran, to monitor possible attacks from Iran and North Korea. This was intended to be an alternative to the US opening installations in Central Europe, which Moscow regards as a threat to its security.
In an interview with Japan's Yomiuri newspaper Friday, Henry Obering, head of the US Missile Defence Agency, said if Washington accepted Russia's proposal it would remain exposed to Iran's missile strikes, but he hailed the offer as a very friendly move.
Obering said installing a radar in the Czech Republic and a missile base in Poland was the best possible decision given studies of the possible flight trajectories of long-range ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic was working on. He said the bases in Europe would be opened in 2011-13.
Putin's proposal at a Group of Eight leading industrialized nations summit in Germany marked a thaw in relations between Moscow and Washington after weeks of tensions over US missile shield plans in Europe, when Putin threatened to point Russian warheads at Europe in a flashback to the Cold War confrontation.
Obering said Washington was studying the possibility of using the radar in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich nation bordering Iran. He said sharing information on detected launches from Iran could be useful to the US military.
If Russia joined the missile defence shield being created, it would be a strong message to Iran and North Korea, Obering said.
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev reiterated Friday that he was prepared to discuss details of Russia-US cooperation at the Gabala radar station if Moscow and Washington continued their dialogue on the matter.
But Aliyev said he was opposed to opening new bases in his country, in an apparent reference to Russia's concerns about earlier reports on US military plans for the South Caucasus region.
Cooperation should be confined to "sharing radar data, and there is no need to build new facilities", Aliyev said, adding that foreign military contingents were not necessary in the country either.
Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is expected to meet Pentagon chief Robert Gates in Brussels Friday on the sidelines of a two-day session of NATO defence ministers to discuss the missile shield plans, a member of the Russian delegation said.