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Russia Stresses Pre-emptive Strikes “Anywhere”
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“The only limit is exclusion of strikes with nuclear weapons,” said Ivanov.
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MOSCOW
, December 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
Russia
reserves the right to carry out any pre-emptive strike against terror
bases anywhere in the world, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
was quoted as saying Friday, December 10.
“We
do not rule out the possibility of carrying out preventive strikes on
terrorist bases at any location in the world,” Ivanov said in an
address to Russian military-diplomatic officials in
Moscow
.
“The
only limit is exclusion of strikes with nuclear weapons,” he was
quoted by Interfax news agency.
Ivanov
referred to UN Security Council resolution 1566 stipulating that any
country had the right to protect itself against the threat of
terrorism and said that “a legal basis for carrying out such strikes
exists today.”
“
Russia
is far from being the only country to announce its readiness to carry
out preventive strikes on terrorist bases.”
Without
directly naming the
United States
, he said that “precedents have already been set in
Afghanistan
and
Iraq
” for such pre-emptive military action.
Washington
has carried out what it claims to be preventive anti-terror military
strikes in both countries on claims of cracking down on terrorists of
searching for weapons of mass destruction.
In
Iraq
, no such banned weapons have been found, raising fears the offensive
on the oil-rich county was based on false pretexts.
“Liquidate
Them”
Ivanov's
comments came three months after
Russia
's chief of staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, made a similar
announcement as he met in
Moscow
with NATO's supreme allied commander for
Europe
, General James Jones.
“We
will take steps to liquidate terror bases in any region” in the
world, Baluyevsky was quoted
as saying September 8.
Those
comments, made in the immediate aftermath of the Beslan school hostage
tragedy and a string of attacks that rocked
Russia
just before it, raised some concern over the new direction in Russian
defense policy.
The
policy shift followed the school hostage-taking tragedy that claimed
the lives of hundreds of people, most of them children.
They
also come as Russian forces are deployed to the breakaway
republic
of
Chechnya
, where many human rights violations against local Muslim inhabitants
were recorded.
UN
Report
British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has expressed support for the new
doctrine, calling it “understandable.”
Ivanov's
statements came a few weeks after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan gave
his backing of the use of pre-emptive military strikes against certain
countries with
the approval of the Security Council.
A
team of 16 high-level experts, formed by Annan a year ago, presented
the report suggesting solutions for dealing with the challenges to
global peace and security in the 21st century.
The
UN has come under fire from international law experts for endorsing
the report raising alarm bells the move could
be abused by certain countries against others.
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