Iran threatens over radar

MUNICH / TEHRAN

German Foreign Minister Westerwelle (L), US Secretary of State Clinton (2nd L), US Defense Secretary Panetta, and NATO Secretary General Rasmussen participate in the Munich Security Conference in Munich. AP photo

A day after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s latest NATO missile shield remarks, a senior Iranian military commander said Iran will attack any country whose territory is used by “enemies” of the Islamic state to launch a military strike against its soil.

The NATO missile shield program, the radars of which were installed at the Kürecik air base in Malatya in southeastern Turkey, will be commanded from the Alliance’s Ramstein Air Base, according to Panetta, who briefed journalists on the sidelines of the international security conference in Munich on Feb. 4. “Any spot used by the enemy for hostile operations against Iran will be subjected to retaliatory aggression by our armed forces,” the deputy head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, told the semi-official Fars news agency yesterday. Panetta reminded journalists at the conference that in addition to the radar station in Turkey, which has greatly disturbed neighboring Iran, missiles will be stationed in Romania and Poland. Four United States ships capable of shooting down missiles will be stationed at Rota, Spain, he said. The whole system will be managed from NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen in Germany. Among the officers at this base will be a Turkish general and his team. Turkey will be informed as to how the information from the radars will be shared with other countries. The command center of the radar system in Turkey will be at the 2nd Tactical Air Command in Diyarbakır. This center will ensure coordination with the headquarters in Germany. The system’s Romania and Poland components are scheduled to become active in 2015 and 2018, respectively.