News have come that could spell problems for current US President George W. Bush and US President-Elect Barack Obama. This could possibly bring up the topic of the missile defense shield in the spotlight once again. So far, it has been revealed that Iran has successfully fired a new type of long range surface-to-surface missile.
The results show that these missiles can hit southeastern Europe with great precision. According to Iran’s Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar, these missiles could strike both Israel and go as far as to hitting southeastern Europe.
However, Najjar said that these missiles are for defense rather than offense. These missiles run on solid fuel instead of liquid fuel. It has been revealed that using solid-fuel gives the missiles more accuracy.
So far, Israel had not commented.
But the United States has responded by saying that these new missiles would not be good for the region’s stability. It added with more talks about the missile shield in Europe. However, the relations between the United States and Europe have been tense over talks of the missile shield.
The missile shield idea had been condemned back in May by both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
“I think it’s pretty obvious when Iran launches one of these ballistic missiles, that this is something of concern to the international community, and I’m including Russian in the international community here,” said Robert Wood, the spokesman for the US State Department in regards to Iran’s new missiles.
These new missiles could be one of the first challenges that Obama could face with on an international scale when he takes office in January of ’09.
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