October 5, 2002 at 9:16 pm
This report was published today by the Greek newspaper I KYPROS SIMERA, second reported by The Cyprus Mail of today.
See what you make of it…
According to the above newspapers, the Cypriot and Greek Governments have put forward a proposal to the United Kingdom, sanctioning the return (either temporary or permanently) of the S-300PMU-1 battalion to the Republic of Cyprus from Crete.
According to the newspapers, this is a move to provide a legitimate, very-high altitude theatre ballistic-missile protection against any ballistic missile attack that could be fired FROM IRAQ at US and UK forces moving through the island of Cyprus.
No doubt, if such a move were true, it would require both Greece and Cyprus to support the US/UK assault on Sadaam Hussien. Otherwise, politically, it could not be justified by the Government of Britain.
The S-300 battalion at Crete operates 36 missiles of the PMU-1 type.
Such a move would also reduce the operational requirements of the UK and USA to protect their Cypriot base with naval vessels equipped with theatre ballistic missiles like SM-2 and the “SM-3”.
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Hope we can have an interesting debate on this.