U.S. says Russia must halt missile work

BRUSSELS — The U.S. envoy to NATO on Tuesday said Russia must halt development of new missiles that could carry nuclear warheads and warned that the United States could “take out” the system if it becomes operational.

NATO fears that the 9M729 system contravenes the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The Cold War-era pact bans an entire class of weapons — all land-based cruise missiles with a range between 310-3,410 miles, and the alliance says the Russian system fits into that category.

“It is time now for Russia to come to the table and stop the violations,” U.S. Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison told reporters in Brussels, on the eve of a meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and his NATO counterparts.

She said if the system “became capable of delivering,” the U.S. “would then be looking at the capability to take out a missile that could hit any of our countries in Europe and hit America.”

Washington has shared intelligence evidence with its 28 NATO allies that Russia is developing the ground-fired cruise missile and that the system could give Moscow the ability to launch a nuclear strike in Europe with little or no notice.

Russia has claimed that U.S. missile defenses violate the pact. In the past, President Barack Obama’s administration worked to persuade Moscow to respect the treaty but seemed to make no progress.