05 March 2007, 22:49
Azerbaijan would not like to deploy the US' AMD
The official Baku has declared that Azerbaijan did not receive any proposals on deployment of the elements of the Antimissile Defence (AMD) system in the territory of the country. The correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" has learnt about it at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, in the opinion of military expert Uzeir Djafarov, from the viewpoint of radar deployment, the USA gives preferences to Azerbaijan, since it directly borders Iran. "Georgia cannot be excluded as an alternative. But I think that Georgia is named here for the case if Azerbaijan finally rejects the Americans' proposal. Now the USA and their NATO allies are closely working with the leaders of our country to persuade the official Baku to give its consent," U. Djafarov has noted.
Military expert Djanmirza Mirzoev is of the same opinion. In his words, from the military viewpoint it is more efficient to install this system in Azerbaijan, but Baku is not ready to confront Moscow and Teheran.
The US plans to deploy a radar of the AMD system in the Caucasus were announced by General Henry Obering, commander of the Pentagon's AMD Organization, when he spoke to journalists late last week at NATO's headquarters.
Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent