Washington briefing: U.S. scraps European missile defense plan, launches fresh Iran diplomacy

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday September 18, 2009

Washington - The Obama administration decided to cancel the former president's plan to place missile interceptors and radars in Poland and the Czech Republic, officials were quoted as saying on September 17.

The Bush administration had said it wanted the new military installations to counter a potential missile threat from Iran. But the plan was strongly opposed by Russian leaders, who saw it as undermining their country's nuclear weapons deterrent.

The decision this week to scrap the plan was welcomed by Russia as well as several European officials. Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev called the decision a "responsible approach" and said he looked forward to dialogue with the United States during meetings at the United Nations next week.

Also next week, President Obama will become the first American president to chair a United Nations Security Council session. According to Politico newspaper, the United States will introduce a new resolution that would make the pursuit of peaceful nuclear energy contingent on countries' not being in violation of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Commentators see the initiative as aimed at building an international consensus against Iran's nuclear program.

The resolution would also include a pledge by nuclear-armed countries not to use nuclear weapons against countries that don't have such weapons.

Officials from the five permanent Security Council member states (which include Russia) plus Germany are due to hold talks with Iran on October 1.