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MPs concerned UK will station new US missile defence system

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, March 30, IRNA
UK-US-Defence
Members of all three of Britain's main political parties have raised concern over reports that the US has chosen the UK as a prime candidate to host missiles for the new US missile defence system.

But speaking in a brief debate in the House of Lords Wednesday, Defence Minister Lord Drayson insisted that the US was "considering the potential of fielding a small number of interceptor missiles in Europe" and the UK was mentioned as a possible candidate.

"The US has made no request about an interceptor site in the UK.

It has said that it will continue to consult allies on missile defence issues," Drayson dais.

He told peers that British ministers expected to be engaged in the discussions but denied that any decision had been taken on further UK participation in the US missile defence system.

Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the upper parliamentary chamber, Lord Wallace asked whether the government was concerned that the Bush Administration have a "rather unilateral approach to their use of bases in other sovereign states."
"The degree of extra-territoriality that some of us have already witnessed in US bases in this country is a little worrying," Wallace warned.

The Bishop of Oxford asked that following the launch of the controversial star wars program, if Drayson was convinced that the situation is now sufficiently different so any association with the new US missiles "would enhance rather than undermine our security." Drayson was unable to answer whether the US would extend the missile defence to its friends and allies in Europe, saying that the matter was "under discussion."
Likewise, the minister said the UK had "not got to the point of discussing the basis on which any such technology may or may not be cited in the UK" when questioned if the British government would retain a dual key to control use of the missiles.

Conservative peer Earl Attlee also raised concern that the US involvement in such controversies as extraordinary renditions and uantanamo Bay would make it much harder to sell the missile defence system to the British public.

At the end of the debate, the Defence Minister did concede that Britain did "not see a threat to warrant a missile defence" but suggested that this was not to say one would not emerge in the future.

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