The United States might delay activating its proposed missile defense sites in Europe until it has “definitive proof” of a missile threat from Iran, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.
At a news conference after meeting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Gates said the United States would proceed with current plans to build the sites in Europe but possibly wait before putting them in working order.
The proposal has already been presented to the Russians, who strongly oppose it. The proposal has yet to be worked out in detail, Gates said.
“We would consider tying together activation of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic with definitive proof of the threat — in other words, Iranian missile testing and so on,” Gates said with Topolanek at his side.
The United States wants to build a missile interceptor base in Poland and a radar site in the Czech Republic, but details have yet to be negotiated.
“We have not fully developed this proposal, but the idea was we would go forward with the negotiations, we would complete the negotiations, we would develop the sites, build the sites, but perhaps delay activating them until there was concrete proof of the threat from Iran,” the defense chief said.
U.S. officials have said that the proposal tying activation of the European sites to proof of an Iranian threat was presented to the Russians by Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month. But Gates’ remarks in Prague were the most specific and clear that such a proposition raises the prospect of delay.
Gates described a related proposal to the Russians that might mean permitting a Russian presence at U.S. missile defense bases, including at the Polish and Czech sites. He said this was presented to the Russians in the interest of making as transparent as possible to Moscow how the missile defense sites operate.
Asked whether having Russians on his territory would be acceptable to the Czech government, Topolanek pointedly declined to say. “No comment,” he said through an interpreter. Prior to the breakup of the Soviet empire, Czechoslovakia was part of the Warsaw Pact that opposed the U.S.-led NATO alliance.