Don’t tinker with START,Russia warns US

Russia has resisted the systems as potentially harmful to its own nuclear deterrence and today said that any tinkering with the wording would effectively kill the pact.

“The START agreement,which was drafted on the basis of strict parity,completely meets the national interests of both Russia and the United States,” Foreign Minister Serge I Lavrov told the Interfax news agency.

“It cannot be reopened,becoming the subject of new negotiations.”

US President Barack Obama has argued that the agreement not only makes the world safer but also improves ties with Russia and bolsters the position of President Dmitry Medvedev — seen as a modernising force in Washington.

Leading Democrats yesterday said they believed they had enough votes to pass the treaty and slash both sides’ arsenals to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads.

Senators this weekend rejected two Republican amendments to strip out language in the preamble tying offensive nuclear weapons to defensive systems.

But Republican Minority Whip Jon Kyl yesterday said that “this treaty needs to be fixed.”

He and other Republicans suggested delaying the vote until next year — an idea rejected by the Obama administration amid fears that an even presence of Republicans in Congress next year would make passage even more difficult.

Lavrov encouraged Washington to move quickly but appeared to put no time limit on a final vote.

“We would prefer not to think about the negative consequences” of this treaty not being passed,” Russia’s top diplomat told the agency.

“We expect the ratification process to be completed in near future.”