A planned US anti-missile shield in Europe is intended to protect against the "emergent threat" from Iran, the US State Department said Thursday. "Our revised approach is tailored to address the emergent threat coming to the region from Iran," said department spokesman Philip Crowley.
"We're going to protect our interests and those of our allies," he added, confirming that Romania would host medium-range ballistic missile interceptors as part of the shield system. Romania's President Traian Basescu earlier announced that his country had agreed to participate in the system, which is expected to be operational by 2015.
The United States in September shelved a plan to place missile defence facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland, after strong protests from Russia. President Barack Obama's administration announced the new program in September, saying it would reconfigure the system after reevaluating the threat from Iranian long-range ballistic missiles, and deciding to focus on protecting against short- and medium-range missiles.