----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2000 1:33 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] Russian General Derides NMD Ploys As Fairy Tales STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php?id=178639 Russian General Slams U.S. "Fairy Tales" on Arms MOSCOW, Jul 14, 2000 -- (Reuters) A top Russian general said on Thursday Washington's justifications for wanting to build a national anti-missile defense system were based on "fairy tales". Just over a week before Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet U.S. President Bill Clinton at a three-day summit of Group of Eight (G8) countries in Japan, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov emphasized Russia's hard-line approach on the issue. "In our view - this is the opinion not just of the Defense Ministry but of Russia - there are no threats to the United States from these countries which they dub rogue states," Ivashov told foreign reporters. Washington says it is concerned about states such as North Korea and Iran developing nuclear missiles. Putin and Clinton said they had agreed at a summit in Moscow last month that the world faced an emerging missile threat. But Ivashov said Washington was barking up the wrong tree. "This tale that North Korea or Iran may be a threat, is just that - a fairy tale," he said. A longstanding critic of U.S. plans to build a National Missile Defense (NMD), Ivashov was among the first to welcome the failure last week of the third prototype test of the system. He said political negotiations were the best way to ward off any potential threats. "The forthcoming visit of Vladimir Putin to North Korea is a continuation of this political process - you don't have to immediately grab some weapons," he said. Putin is to make an unprecedented visit to North Korea on his way to the G8 summit on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Officials in Moscow have said Putin will press Clinton to drop the NMD plans when they meet. Nor was Iran a threat to U.S. interests, Ivashov said. "I am also convinced that Iran is not striving for a confrontation over its military potential," he said. "Iran is striving to end sanctions against it and to cooperate with Europe, Russia, and its neighbors in the Middle East. President (Mohammad) Khatami's recent visit to Berlin confirms this." Russia opposes NMD, saying the Star Wars-like system could spark a new arms race and would infringe the terms of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty (ABM) which it says is the keystone linking all arms reduction pacts. Moscow is keen to reduce its huge nuclear arsenal, which is expensive to maintain. It recently ratified the START-2 arms reduction pact, reducing the number of U.S. and Russian warheads to 3,500 each and is urging Washington to move quickly to agree on START-3, expected to slash levels to 2,000 or fewer. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get Yahoo! Mail Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] BEST PRICES ON THE NET AT IMANDI.COM Cheapest prices on new cars, insurance, airfare, maids, custom pc's, mortgages, moving and more! Tell us what you want. We locate it for free -- across town & across the country. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/imandi
