NATO missile shield unable to boost Turkey's security

Iran's permanent envoy to the United Nations Mohammad Khazayee said deployment of missile shields could never boost the security of the hosting country or those states which run such systems."Deployment of missile defense systems would not increase the security of the hosting country or those states which run them," he said in his address to a meeting of the Disarmament and International Security Committee of the UN General Assembly in New York. His remarks came after Turkey accepted to host a NATO missile defense system. Turkey's Foreign Ministry revealed last month 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. Iran deplored the plan and warned Ankara not to play into the hands of the Zionists and their US backers, saying that the move would serve Israel's interests. The US and its western allies alleged that the NATO missile shield is aimed at deterring Iran's missile threat, but Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said the NATO missile shield in Turkey would be unable to deter Iran's missile capability. Hajizadeh noted that the NATO plan to deploy a missile defense system in Turkey is a hostile, but hopeless, move by the US and the Zionists against Iran. "But, if Iran decides to launch a ballistic missile, these measures would prove inefficient," Hajizadeh said. "And we tell them that if they can target our missiles, then they should do something to defend their missile shield as well," he continued. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also warned that the deployment of strategic missile defense systems in various parts of the world will alter the international security configuration. "Statements to the effect that the build-up of global missile defense capabilities will not undermine the foundations of strategic stability are not enough," Lavrov told the 66th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. "The issue is far too serious." He reiterated Russia's position on the issue, saying "solid legal guarantees are needed that the missile defense potential will measure up to the declared goals and not violate global and regional balances." "This is relevant both for Europe and the Asia-Pacific region where the missile defense factor has started affecting the strategic situation."