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#31 - JRL 2007-143 - JRL Home
Iran won't acquire missiles threatening Europe in next 15 years - Lavrov

MINSK. June 28 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that Iran will not be able to develop missiles "that could threaten Europe and that require the creation of missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic to counter them" for the next 15 years.

Russia does not see any threat from Iran, the Russian foreign minister said in a speech to professors and students of the Belarusian State University on Thursday in Minsk.

"There were attempts to present out proposal [on the joint use of the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan] as Russia's acknowledgment of what it had been rejecting for a long time: Iran is a threat. Things are totally different," Lavrov said.

Today, Iran possesses missiles with ranges of 2,000 - 2,500 kilometers, the minister said. "Iran does not have and is not planning to develop missiles that can constitute a threat to Europe, to say nothing of the United States," Lavrov said.