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Putin: Iran Not Seeking to Build Nuclear Weapons; Nukes in Mideast Means the Palestinians Would Cease to Exist
[AFP/Yahoo] Iran is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons but Tehran should avoid "irritating" its neighbors, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Saturday in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde. Asked if Iran was trying to acquire nuclear weapons, Putin replied: "I don't believe so. Nothing indicates it....On a legal level, Iran has infringed nothing at the moment. They have the same right to enrichment (of uranium). The paperwork says so. Iran is accused of not displaying all its programs to the IAEA. This point remains to be resolved." Putin stressed that Russia was opposed to Iran achieving a nuclear-power status. "That is our principled position," he said. "Using nuclear weapons in a region as small as the Middle East would be synonymous with suicide. Whose interests would it serve? The Palestinians? Hardly, the Palestinians would cease to exist."