Res Communis

Gates on Missile Defense and the Iranian Satellite

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

From a press roundtable with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in Krakow, Poland on Febraury 19, 2009:

. . . Q Mr. Secretary — (inaudible) — of the Czech Republic. With regard to the missile defense and all these considerations like economic factor and technology and diplomacy tools, Iran and Russia, do you think it could be expected that the U.S. would retreat from the treaty signed with Poland and the Czech Republic?

SEC. GATES: Well, I think that as the vice president said in Munich, we continue to be very concerned about the Iranian missile threat, particularly as they continue work on what we believe are weapons of mass destruction. Their launch of a satellite shows that they are increasing their ability to build missiles or rockets with considerable range. And both in the context of cost effectiveness and technology, we will continue to move forward. But we are also going to work with our allies. We have a NATO commitment that was made at Bucharest by all of the heads of government. And we also are very interested in continuing to pursue our efforts to persuade the Russians to partner with us in this endeavor. And my hope is that now, with the new administration, the prospects for that kind of cooperation might have improved. . . .

And from a press briefing on February 20, 2009 in Krakow, Poland:

. . . Q For the Italian Television, Mr. Secretary, do you believe the new U.N. report about the Iranian nuclear activity will accelerate the United States’ plans for an anti-missile defense system?

SEC. GATES: I haven’t read the U.N. report yet so I’m not really in a position to comment, but I think that, as I have said before, the primary reason for the third site in Europe is to deal with the Iranian missile threat, and the fact that they have just launched a space satellite I think is indicative of the continuing and steady progress that they are seeing in developing these missile capabilities. So I think we need to take that into account, along with their continuing unwillingness to go along with the U.N. Security Council resolutions, with respect to enrichment. . . .