Moscow ? Iran poses no threat to Russia, top diplomats and military officials said Thursday as Moscow pressed its argument for the United States to abandon plans for a missile defense system in Europe.

The senior Russian officials warned Washington against snubbing Moscow’s proposal for cooperating on missile defense, saying the deployment of U.S. missile defense sites in Europe would strengthen Russia’s belief that it is the real target of the American system.

Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of general staff of the Russian armed forces, said with Iran posing no immediate missile threat, the aim of the planned U.S. sites in Poland and the Czech Republic must clearly be against Russia’s nuclear arsenal.