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US government officials are likely to tell the Polish and Czech governments on Thursday that Washington will scrap the planned missile defence shield in their countries, as the threat of long-range missiles from Iran is less imminent.
The Obama envoys are expected to brief lawmakers and government officials in Warsaw and Prague on the results of the seven-month review commissioned by President Barack Obama, unnamed sources in Washington told the Associated Press.
The Wall Street Journal also reported on Thursday that the White House is to shelve the Bush-era plan, "a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe."
The Obama administration's assessment concludes that long-range missile threat from Iran is a far lesser one than short and medium-range, making the case for the development of "regional missile defenses" for Europe, which are far less controversial for Russia, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ.
The multi-billion-dollar project agreed last year planned to install 10 interceptor missiles at a facility in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.
Warsaw also managed to secure a US promise of a battery of Patriot missiles to be permanently based on Polish territory as a defence against possible Russian attack – a security guarantee Poland had sought ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Some 120 American soldiers would have been deployed at the interceptor base in northern Poland, and US soldiers would also have operated the Patriot missiles.
Now the plan seems to shift more towards "rotating" Patriot missiles, which would "tour" Europe and also be stationed at some point in Poland.
General Carter Hamm, the commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, said Washington has launched talks with Polish officials in this regard.
"My position has been: Let's get started as soon as we can with the training rotations, while the longer-term stationing ... is decided between the two governments," General Hamm told the WSJ.
Polish officials have so far avoided commenting on "speculations", but stressed they expected the US to honour its commitments to cooperate with Poland militarily in areas beyond the missile-defence programme.
Russia is certain to welcome the move after President Dmitri Medvedev threatened to deploy ballistic missiles near the Polish border if the Obama administration did not drop the plans.
Last week, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he expected Washington to scrap the scheme, describing it as a mistaken Bush-era policy.
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