Missile Defense and Middle East War

There is an ongoing threat of war in the Middle East and general nuclear war. The Russia's will not start this war, but they are being drawn into it. Alexei Pushkov, the Chairman of the Russian State Duma's International Affairs Committee, warned that the U.S. joint missile defense plans with six Arab states "may signal the possibility of a military strike on Iran," and that therefore "the likelihood of a full-fledged war is very high." Russia's top leaders have made it clear that they view the Obama administration's plan to deploy missile defense systems in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific, as part of a single policy of encirclement of Russia and China, which threatens the fundamental national security interests of those countries, and have repeatedly warned that they will respond accordingly. Pushkov was speaking at a round table conference on Iran held at the State Duma in early April. According to accounts in Russia Today and RIA Novosti, Pushkov said: "The formation of the missile defense system is a new step to signal the possibility of a military strike on Iran, at least in a political context... A missile defense system is only needed in the event that Iran decides to retaliate, since there are no reasons to think that Iran would be the first to launch a strike all of a sudden," Pushkov said. "The surgical operation that public opinion is being prepared for may deteriorate into a vast and full-scale regional war... The situation is not abating, but deteriorating, despite a flurry of political and diplomatic activity surrounding the Iranian problem. There are indications that the situation around Iran's nuclear work could develop according to the worst-case scenario," he said. This arouses serious concerns for Russia, he added, according to the Russia Today account. "The likelihood of a full-fledged war is very high," Pushkov said, according to RIA Novosti. He also said that bombing Iran's nuclear facilities could trigger a global war, as the Islamic Republic would definitely respond and its response may be asymmetrical. Pushkov, a professional historian and TV commentator with a career in the Russian foreign policy establishment going back to the Gorbachov era, became head of the Foreign Affairs Committee after his election to the Duma on the United Russia slate last December.