On June 7, during the G8 summit in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited the United States to share the early-warning radar in Gabala, Azerbaijan, if it abandons its plans to deploy elements of its anti-ballistic missile system in Europe.

Although President George W. Bush said Putin's proposal was logical, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted that Washington would not abandon its ABM plans for Europe.

Subsequent events exposed the two countries' true intentions.

Some state officials and experts, including some in Russia, do not view Iranian missiles as a threat -- but they may be wrong.

This summer Iran and North Korea signed an agreement under which Iran will receive several dozen Taepodong 2 missiles, with an effective range of up to 2,486 miles, by the end of the year.

Iran currently has no missiles that can reach Europe, but the North Korean missiles could easily fly from Iran to Germany, France, Britain and other countries in Europe. No wonder these countries, with the exception of Austria, support the United States' ABM plans.

There are also reasons to assume that North Korea will supply Iran with ballistic missiles with a range of 6,837 miles, which it is currently developing, by 2013.

Armed with these missiles, the unstable Iranian regime would be able to launch a missile attack against the United States. Only the ABM systems Washington plans to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic by 2013 would be able to stop the attack.

The Iranian president is assuring the world of his country's peaceful intentions only in order to buy time to create nuclear weapons.

The United States and Russia are aware of the Iranian threat. Of the four contemporary evils -- nuclear blackmail, international terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism -- Washington and Moscow especially fear the threat of local nuclear wars and international terrorism. This is why they need ABM systems, and it is from this perspective that we should consider both the events of the past two years and those to come in the future.

The Kremlin's asymmetrical response to the deployment of the American ABM system in Europe includes the creation of the GLONASS system and the construction of the new Voronezh-type radars.

Russia is establishing a global positioning system in orbit, and not only for peaceful purposes. Military satellites can create a continuous navigation space, which allows establishing the precise coordinates of any object on the ground, on the sea or in the air. Precision weapons cannot be used without satellite navigation systems.

(Next: The case for the Voronezh ABM radars)

(Rauf Radzhabov is a military expert from Azerbaijan and editor in chief of the 3rd View information and analysis agency. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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