Vice President Dick Cheney spoke out strongly against Iran on Thursday, calling Tehran one of the biggest threats to world peace and warning Iran that the United States would not tolerate their ambitions to obtain or develop nuclear weapons.

Cheney also said that if Iran pushes ahead with its nuclear weapons program, Israel may act preemptively to destroy the facility. 'Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards,' Cheney said on the 'Imus on the Morning' program on MSNBC.

In 1981, Israel attacked Iraq's nuclear facility by using war planes. While the move was widely criticized at the time, American officials later conceded that it was a big reason Saddam Hussein never developed nuclear weapons before the first Gulf War.

Cheney stopped short of advocating war against Iran, saying 'Certainly in the case of the Iranian situation, I think everybody would be best suited by or best treated and dealt with if we could deal with it diplomatically.'

If negotiations fail, Cheney said he would ask the United Nations to impose economic sanctions against Iran. He then added, 'You look around the world at potential trouble spots; Iran is right at the top of the list. At some point, if the Iranians don't live up to their commitments, the next step will be to take it to the UN Security Council, and seek the imposition of international sanctions.'

Cheney also noted that Iran is a supporter of world wide terrorism especially the group Hezbollah.

President Bush labeled Iran as one of the three nations in his so-called 'Axis of Evil' along with North Korea and Iraq just after the September 11th attacks. It is clear the Bush Administration continues to view Iraq as a major trouble area in the next four years.