Cheney's Warning to Iran: Keep Your Hands Off Iraq

Cheney's Warning to Iran: Keep Your Hands Off Iraq and to Senator Biden ( Senator Biden, D-Delaware to Bush: Stay Out of Iran ) SHUT YOUR MOUTH .....

FOX News Chris Wallace

WALLACE: The president talked very tough about Iran this week. And it's not just rhetoric. He has authorized the arrest of Iranians making trouble in Iraq. He has moved against Iranian banks. You've sent two carrier groups and air defense systems into the region. What's the message that you're sending to Iran? And how tough are you prepared to get?

CHENEY: Well, I think it's been pretty well-known that Iran is fishing in troubled waters, if you will, inside Iraq. And the president has responded to that, as you suggest. I think it's exactly the right thing to do. And Iran's a problem in a much larger sense.
They have begun to conduct themselves in ways that have created a great deal of tension throughout the region. If you go and talk with the Gulf states or if you talk with the Saudis or if you talk about the Israelis or the Jordanians, the entire region is worried, partly because of the conduct of Mr. Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, who appears to be a radical, a man who believes in an apocalyptic vision of the future and who thinks it's imminent.
At the same time, of course, they're pursuing the acquisition of nuclear weapons. They are in a position where they sit astride the Straits of Hormuz, where over 20 percent of the world's supply of oil transits every single day, over 18 million barrels a day.
They use Hezbollah as a surrogate. And working through Syria with Hezbollah, they're trying to topple the democratically elected government in Lebanon. Working through Hamas and their support for Hamas in Gaza, they're interfering in the peace process. So the threat that Iran represents is growing, it's multi- dimensional, and it is, in fact, of concern to everybody in the region.

WALLACE: So what message are you sending to Iran, and how tough are you prepared to get?

CHENEY: I think the message that the president sent clearly is that we do not want them doing what they can to try to destabilize the situation inside Iraq. We think it's very important that they keep their folks at home. They've been important, for example, in providing improvised explosive devices to some of the forces inside Iraq. The presence of U.S. military out there, not only in terms of what we're doing in Iraq but also with our carrier task forces, for example, is indicated as reassurance to our friends in the region that the United States is committed to their security and that we're a major presence there now and we expect to continue to be one in the future.

WALLACE: So are you increasing the pressure on Iran to stop these activities?

CHENEY: Well, the pressure, obviously — we're focused diplomatically on the nuclear problem. We've gone through the United Nations. We've gotten the U.N. Security Council resolution unanimously through that body to impose sanctions on Iran. There's no reason in the world why Iran needs to continue to pursue nuclear weapons. But if you look down the road a few years and speculate about the possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran, astride the world's supply of oil, able to affect adversely the global economy, prepared to use terrorist organizations and/or their nuclear weapons to threaten their neighbors and others around the world, that's a very serious prospect. And it's important that that not happen.

WALLACE: Well, you say it's important that not happen. In fact, it was the basis of the Bush doctrine: You will not allow the world's most dangerous powers to get access to the world's most dangerous weapons. Can you pledge that, before you and the president leave office, you will take care of the threat of Iran?

CHENEY: I think we're working right now, today, as we speak, on key elements of that problem, specifically through the United Nations, for example, with the nuclear program...

WALLACE: They're continuing the cascades...

CHENEY: ... through our military presence in the Gulf, with respect to our friends and allies in that part of the world, and obviously inside Iraq in terms of the actions we've taken or ordered be taken against Quds Force personnel that are making trouble inside Iraq.