WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that sanctions would be "the number one item on the agenda" if Iran is hauled before the U.N. Security Council for restarting nuclear activities.
"I think the next step will be probably to go before the U.N. Security Council," Cheney said in an interview on the Tony Snow show on Fox News radio. "And that would be probably the number one item on the agenda would be the resolution that could be enforced by sanctions, were they to fail to comply with it."
Ending a two-year freeze, Iran on Tuesday broke U.N. seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it was resuming nuclear research for energy production. The United States insists Tehran wants a nuclear weapons program.
Britain, France and Germany, which have been negotiating with U.S. backing with Iran over its uranium conversion and enrichment activities, are meeting in Berlin on Thursday to consider their next step.
The United States has sounded increasingly confident it could win Security Council support for some action against Iran, but it is unlikely the votes would be there for sanctions.
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