Tehran Threatens to Confront NATO’s Missile Shield Plan in Turkey

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast blasted the NATO plan for deploying an anti-ballistic missile system in Turkey, and said Tehran will confront any plan which threatens its security with maximum might and power.
“We will strongly and powerfully confront any plan which threatens our national security,” Mehman-Parast told FNA.

He described NATO’s missile plan for Turkey as a “trick” played by the Americans to continue the US presence and interference in the region.

Earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had also reiterated the brotherly ties between Tehran and Ankara, but meantime underlined that Iran should also keep a watchful eye on the deployment of an enemy missile battery in Turkey.

“Turkey is among our brothers and sincere friends, but when enemies deploy a missile system there and admit that it is against Iran, we should be careful,” President Ahmadinejad said at a meeting with a visiting media delegation from Kuwait here late Thursday.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry revealed last week that negotiations with NATO chiefs over the “missile shield” had reached “their final stages.”

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said, “The early warning radar system allocated by the United States to NATO will be deployed in our country.”

Unal said that the plan reflected the new strategic concept approved by the Western military alliance’s leaders at a Lisbon summit last year.

The United States Defense Department subsequently announced that the radar system will be operational by the end of the year.