Britain’s “axis of evil”

Following the USA, Great Britain decided to compile an “axis of evil” of its own. British Foreign Office and British Defense Ministry that developed a special report especially for the parliament, do not object to the US’s axis of evil at all. What is more, Great Britain decided to enlarge list of those countries that may pose a threat to the country within several next years already. Some of the countries were also mentioned in the US “axis of evil”, they are Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya and Syria. London discovered an exact criterion to determine how any country may threat Great Britain in the future. Great Britain considers that if a country has got ballistic missiles, it may pose a threat to Great Britain in the future. That is why Britain’s list consists of 28 countries, including Mideast countries such as Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Saudi Arabia was included into the list of unreliable countries for the first time. The USA is making many claims on Saudi Arabia since the Sept.11 terrorism attacks, but still, the country is not yet on the US “black list.” On the contrary, London openly declares, by middle of this decade Saudi Arabia will become a war threat to Britain. The country is also extremely concerned about Saudi’s Chinese ballistic missile arsenal. The fact that Saudi Arabia held CSS-2 missiles was first mentioned in a CIA report on 1997. Geostrategy-Direct information bulletin informs, no threat to western democracy was meant at all at that time. America did not list Saudi Arabia as “a missile-holding country.”

Following its own criteria, London marked Saudi Arabia as a country holding missile potential (intermediate-range ballistic missiles are meant). London is extremely anxious about the fact that Mideast countries may buy missiles from North Korea, that, in its turn, is ready to co-operate with anyone who pays good. British military officials say, as soon as some Mideast or North African state acquires intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the possibility of attack at the United Kingdom will immediately rise several times. British Defense Ministry says in addition, that “threat” means not only opportunity of some country to attack, but also its intention to do so. The report says, “We have no evidence so far that some country holding ballistic missiles plans to attack Great Britain.” But intentions may change very quickly. It is known perfectly well that weapons of mass destruction are spreading actively, ways of weapon distribution are also different.

CSS-2 missiles, that are better known as DF-3 in China, have the range of about 1,500 miles. Geostrategy-Direct reports, China upgraded the missiles at the end of the 1980s, but Saudi Arabia has not got this upgraded models yet. However, after compiling its own “axis of evil” Great Britain is not quite sure if it really needs a special protection system against hostile missile, similar to Bush’s national missile defense. The Government promised that it would soon tell the British community about ability of the country to repulse missile attacks. It is not ruled out that one more country, being afraid of “missile threats”, will start creation of a great missile defense system. British Defense Ministry stated it would control the situation. It will keep control over countries that may pose a threat to Great Britain and improve its defense technologies to repulse any possible attacks.

Sergey Borisov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/05/24/41673.html