TEHRAN: Iran on Monday welcomed the US move to abandon plans for a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe and denied that the Islamic republic posed a missile threat, Geo News reported.
"The Islamic republic welcomes any action that serves to decrease arms races," it quoted foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi as saying.
US President Barack Obama last week announced he would shelve plans to site parts of a missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and instead deploy more mobile equipment targeting Iran's short- and medium-range missiles.
Ghashghavi called baseless and unsubstantiated the idea that the missile plan had been to counter a military threat from Iran.
"The claim that Iran is a missile threat was made by the United States with political, opportunist and domineering intentions," he said.
Ghashghavi put the original shield plan down to "missile competition between Russia and the United States, and in order to expand the big power's penetration into central European countries."
On Sunday Obama denied that Russian objections had influenced his decision to abandon the shield plans launched by his predecessor's administration.
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