http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5heE937QM6QzE9T5U7wFrft0XfTmACheney: Iran faces 'serious consequences' over nuclear drive
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LANSDOWNE, United States (AFP) — Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday the United States would not permit Iran to get nuclear weapons and warned of "serious consequences" if it refuses to stop enriching uranium
Cheney, considered the US administration's toughest hardliner on Iran, did not mention the possibility of military action amid reports that President George W. Bush could be laying the stage for war with the Islamic republic.
"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences," he said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," he said, after Bush warned last week that a nuclear-equipped Iran evoked the threat of "World War III."
"Our country and the entire international community cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions," Cheney said, accusing Iran anew of abetting attacks on US troops in Iraq.
Cheney's warning to Iran recalled UN Security Council resolutions in 2002 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein faced "serious consequences" if he failed to come clean on his alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
On the campaign trail for next year's White House race, top Republicans and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton also insist that they will never tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran menacing its neighbors and Israel.
:banghead: