Cheney: “We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon"

DEBKAfile
October 22, 2007, 1:15 PM (GMT+02:00)

The US vice president said Sunday, Oct. 21, in an address to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies: "Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions.''

If the Iranian regime continues to practice delay and deceit to buy time, the US and other nations are prepared to take action, Cheney said - without spelling out whether he was referring to military or other action.

Friday, the incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen said US forces are capable of operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities or other targets. At his first conference, he said: “From a military standpoint, there is more than enough reserve to respond if that, in fact, is what the national leadership wanted to do,” he said. “And so I don’t think we’re stretched in that regard.”