BERLIN (AP) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday called a Russian general’s warning that Poland and the Czech Republic risk being targeted if they host American missile defense bases “extremely unfortunate.” Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said Monday that Russia might target the two countries with missiles if they accept the U.S. proposal to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic. “I think that was an extremely unfortunate comment,” Rice said at a news conference in Berlin. She said U.S. officials had briefed Russia on their plans and made it clear that the system is aimed at a possible launch from Iran, not from Russia. “Anyone who knows anything about this knows that there is no way that 10 interceptors… are a threat to Russia or that they are somehow going to diminish Russia’s deterrent of thousands of warheads,” Rice said. “This is a missile defense system for limited purposes, we have had the opportunity to explain that to Russia… I think everyone understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat, which is quite pronounced, that there need to be ways to deal with that problem.”
