Cheney: Iran faces 'serious consequences' over nuclear drive 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. Speaking on CNN Sunday, Democratic Representative Jane Harman said the administration's threatening language against Iran was "very dangerous." "We heard about mushroom clouds and other images before the military action in Iraq. I wish the president would avoid that," she said, calling for tougher UN sanctions on Iran instead of "war-mongering threats." Unbowed by the morass faced now by the United States in Iraq, and by warnings that the US military is dangerously overstretched, the hawkish Cheney reportedly favors attacking Iran. In a New Yorker article last month, celebrated investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said there was US planning for "surgical" raids against Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which Washington accuses of targeting its forces in Iraq. 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. Clinton last month voted for a Senate resolution that declared the Revolutionary Guards a terror organization -- a step that her Democratic rival Barack Obama said represented a "blank check" for Bush to wage war on Iran. Iran, which insists it only wants peaceful nuclear energy, has brushed aside US warnings, and announced Saturday that its top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani had resigned and was being replaced by an ally of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a gloomy speech that ranged over threats facing the United States from Islamic terrorism, and the need for Congress to renew controversial surveillance tactics, Cheney also said that Washington would not abandon Iraq. "We're going to complete the mission so that another generation of Americans does not need to go back and do it again," he said. Cheney also accused Syria of using "bribery and intimidation" to undermine Lebanon's upcoming presidential election and said the vote should go ahead "free of any foreign interference." In May Cheney declared, from the potent venue of a US aircraft carrier steaming in the Gulf, that the United States would not let Iran acquire nuclear arms. Middle East experts who spoke at the Washington Institute conference after Cheney's speech noted that US rhetoric against Iran was being sharply escalated. "The language on Iran is quite significant," former Middle East presidential envoy Dennis Ross said. "That's very strong words and it does have implications." Commenting on Bush's "World War III" warning, Jane's Information Group Alex Vatanka said: "The United States could take care of Iran militarily in short order. "But it's still not useful for policymakers to use this kind of alarmist talk, even if Bush feels that Iran is an urgent issue that needs to be dealt with in his remaining time in office," he told AFP.
Dick Cheney giving his speech.
In a speech on Sunday, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney warned that Iran will face "serious consequences" if it refuses to stop enriching uranium.  In his speech, Cheney also accused Iran of being "the world’s most active sponsor of state terrorism," and called Iran's government "a growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East."

"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences," Cheney said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, without specifying whether those consequences would include military action.  "The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," he said.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said today that Iran's nuclear policies are "unalterable" and that terminating Iran's nuclear program "isn't on the agenda and won't be."  Iran maintains that it is developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, a position that has been backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with ''CNN'', U.S. Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said the language being used by the Bush administration is "very dangerous" and recommended stronger U.N. sanctions as an alternative to "war-mongering threats."  "We heard about mushroom clouds and other images before the military action in Iraq. I wish the president would avoid that," she said.