BRUSSELS, May 11 (KUNA) -- Russian Chief of Staff, Army General Yuri Baluyevski on Friday predicted that Iran could not attain nuclear war heads in the near future.
His remarks came after meeting with European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana here today, where they discussed strengthening cooperation means in the field of security, particularly in crisis management.
Moscow's concern with the US anti-missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic was voiced in Baluyevski speech before a NATO-Russian military meeting, where he also declared that his country was bailing out from the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty.
After talks at NATO headquarters, General Baluyevski repeated Russia's opposition to American plans to install anti-missile defenses in Europe and dismissed US assertions that the defense lines were needed to defend against potential threats from Iran.
The Treaty is a post-Cold War adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed in November 1999.
The main difference with the old treaty is that the ceilings given to NATO and the Warsaw Pact have been replaced with territorial ones.(end) mj.hb KUNA 112257 May 07NNNN