MOSCOW, February 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warns that a military strike on Iran can trigger a catastrophe and the Iranian nuclear problem can be settled only in a peaceful way.
“Russia is concerned over the growing threat of a military strike against that country. If this happens, the consequences will be really disastrous. Their real scale cannot be imagined,” Putin underlined.
“We offer to recognize Iran’s right for the development of a civilian nuclear program, including the right for uranium enrichment. But this should be done in exchange for putting the entire Iranian nuclear activities under a reliable and all-round control of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the Russian presidential candidate said in his program article “Russia and the Changing World”, which is published in the Moskovskiye Novosti (Moscow News) newspaper on Monday. “I am convinced that the problem should be settled only in a peaceful way,” Putin believes.
If it is successful, “all current sanctions against Iran, including unilateral sanctions should be cancelled,” he noted.
“The West is too involved in ‘the punishment’ of some countries. On the least occasion, they use sanctions or a military stick. I will recall that we live not in the nineteenth century and even not in the twentieth century,” Putin underlined.