Iranian Rockets Too Short-range to Justify Missile Shield, Russia Says

There is no military justification for US plans to deploy missile defenses in eastern Europe because Tehran's rockets cannot travel that far, Russia said today.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the results of recent Iranian missile tests proved that US plans for a defence shield in Europe were unnecessary.

"The tests in Iran have only confirmed that Iran at the moment has rockets with a range of up to 2,000 km [1,243 miles]. That confirms what we have said before," he said.

His statement follows a claim yesterday from the director of the US missile defence agency, Lieutenant General Henry Obering, that the Iranian tests "emphasize the urgency of what we are doing".

"So what will they be able to do in three or four, five years?" Obering asked. "They're increasing the range of these missiles. I believe very strongly that they will have the ability to target most of Europe in the next couple of years with these missiles."

Lavrov today told reporters in Moscow that Russia continued to be "convinced of the invented nature of discussions about the Iranian rocket threat as a motive for the deployment of the missile shield in Europe".

He said the tests revealed that ''a missile shield in Europe, with its parameters, is not needed to monitor or react to such threats''.

Following Iran's second ballistic missile test in as many days yesterday, the US vowed to defend Israel and its other allies in the Gulf.

"We take very, very strongly our obligation to help our allies defend themselves, and no one should be confused about that," the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday during a visit to Georgia.

As the situation worsened in the Gulf, the French oil company Total said it would pull out of a large-scale investment in an Iranian gas field - a serious blow to Tehran, which is keen to exploit its gas reserves, and a victory for the Bush administration, which has been seeking to isolate the Iranian government.

The EU also stepped up calls today for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment within its disputed nuclear program.

"These missile tests can only reinforce the international community's concerns," the office of the French presidency of the EU said in a statement.

Israel responded to the tests with a show of strength of its own, putting on a display at Ben-Gurion airport of its new spy and early warning plane. Israel also hinted that it would not hesitate to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, speaking at a labor party meeting, said the country had not balked before "when its vital security interests" were at stake, an apparent allusion to its 1981 air strike that destroyed Iraq's nuclear plant. But he softened his remarks, noting that "the reactions of enemies ... need to be taken into consideration as well".

According to official Iranian reports, the weapons tested included long-range Shahab-3 missiles, capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the region. The reports said the missiles had undisclosed special features. But the Pentagon insisted they were only short-range.

Lavrov said today that negotiations, not threats, were the only way to resolve the dispute.

"Overall we are in favor of any problems which are linked to Iran being resolved through negotiations, political and diplomatic methods, by bringing Iran into a mutually respectful and concrete dialog," he said.

"Not through threats that are voiced periodically that 'force will be used so that, once and for all, all the problems are resolved'. That will not work."

An Israeli attack on Iran would create upheaval in the Middle East. Tehran's ally Hizbullah could stir up trouble on Israel's northern border and Iranian proteges in Iraq and Afghanistan could go on the offensive against US troops.

Iran has also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for Gulf oil exports, if it is attacked.

The US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, visited Israel earlier this month for talks with Israeli commanders and warned publicly on his return to Washington that an Israeli attack would destabilize the region.

Anthony Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Mullen's remarks were a clear sign that Israel did not have a "green light" from Washington to launch an attack.