A US plan to deploy an anti-missile defence system in eastern Europe against potential attacks from Iran threatens Russia and undermines co-operation in the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
"If our Western partners are deploying elements of the US national anti-missile defence system on the pretext of an 'Iranian threat'... then what's the point of the UN Security Council?" Lavrov wrote in the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper. "I hope our American partners think about this, especially as they are calling on us to fight a hypothetical threat while creating a real threat to our security," Lavrov wrote.
Washington says it wants to deploy the anti-missile shield in Poland, the Czech Republic and in the southern Caucasus to guard Europe against potential threats from states such as Iran and North Korea. US officials say the system would not be aimed at Russia and would in any case soon be overwhelmed in an assault by Russia's vast missile arsenal.
Russia and the United States are both permanent members of the UN Security Council, which is expected to vote Saturday on a draft resolution imposing new sanctions on Iran.