By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister expressed concern Monday about talk of potential strikes against Iran in a televised exchange that underscored Moscow's demand for a negotiated solution to the confrontation over Teheran's nuclear program.
They suggested that the US is too trigger-happy in remarks delivered as the five permanent UN Security Council members met in London to discuss new ways to pressure Teheran to suspend parts of its nuclear program.
"On the one hand, the Iranian leadership has not yet given satisfactory answers to well-known questions" posed by the UN nuclear watchdog agency, which is trying to determine whether Iran may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Putin during a Cabinet meeting.
"On the other hand, prognoses and predictions that strikes will be conducted against Iran have become more common, and this causes concern," Lavrov said, adding that US Vice President Dick Cheney "allowed such a possibility in recent comments."