Putin : Iran Poses No Nuclear Threat, No Proof They Seek Or Possess Nuclear Weapons

Russia's Vladimir Putin has destroyed any last hope that BushCo. and the NeoCons had for a further hammering of Iran through the United Nations Security Council.

Although the position taken by Putin in the below story is being presented as something new, or recent, it has in fact been Putin's position for at least two years :

President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday there is no proof Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons, but emphasized that Tehran must be encouraged to make its nuclear program fully transparent.

"We are sharing our partners' concern about making all Iranian programs transparent," Putin said at a news conference after talks with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"We agreed yesterday, and the president confirmed it, that Iran is making certain steps toward the international community to achieve that."

Putin is to make his first visit to Iran early next week for a summit of Caspian Sea nations.

Russia has opposed the U.S.-push for tougher sanctions against Iran and called for more checks and inspections of Iranian facilities by International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

"We have worked cooperatively with our partners at the United Nations Security Council, and we intend to continue such cooperative work in the future," Putin said. But he said that with no "objective data" showing Iran is developing nuclear weapons, "we proceed from an assumption that Iran has no such plans."

Israel, the United States and the UK will now rush to say that the Russian position and view is also their own.

The NeoCons, meanwhile, will seethe with fury that their hopes of Iran being bombed sometime in the next year are dying by the day. NeoCon propaganda will continue, and will probably grow more desperate, but the United States and Israel, even with the backing of France, faces formidable opponents in Russia and China, both of whom have made clear that attacks on Iran will not be tolerated.


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