Cheney says Iran nuclear situation is 'dangerous'

US Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday said the nuclear standoff with Iran was a dangerous situation that had been aggravated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "outrageous statements".

US Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday said the nuclear standoff with Iran was a dangerous situation that had been aggravated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "outrageous statements".

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Cheney welcomed the action of the UN nuclear watchdog to report Iran to the Security Council as "the right step." He said the United States was pursuing diplomacy to resolve the impasse over Tehran's nuclear ambitions but said no options, including military action, were off the table.

"We think it's dangerous and I think the international community believes that," Cheney said in an interview to air tonight on PBS's "Newshour."

"I think everybody also has had their level of concern increase because of the current leadership in Iran," Cheney said. "The new president has made some pretty outrageous statements."

Ahmadinejad has prompted international condemnation for anti-Israel rhetoric in recent months, including saying the Jewish state should be wiped off the map and also calling into question the Holocaust.

"When you think about a government like Iran that has a history of sponsorship of terrorist organizations ... A nation that is now governed by a man who has talked repeatedly, for example, about the destruction of Israel, that everybody's concerned that if Iran were equipped with nuclear weapons, that would become a major source of instability in that part of the world," Cheney said.