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Former vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday dismissed Republican star Sarah Palin's recommendation that Barack Obama declare war on Iran, saying US-Iran differences will not be resolved by "simple political calculations."
Asked on ABC television's "This Week" program about comments made by the former vice presidential hopeful and Alaska governor suggesting that President Obama would benefit politically by declaring war on Iran, Cheney said he did not think a president "can make a judgment like that on the basis of politics."
"The stakes are too high, the consequences too significant to be treating those as simple political calculations," Cheney said.
"When you begin to talk about war, talk about crossing international borders, you talk about committing American men and women to combat, that takes place on a plane clear above any political consideration," he said.
Last week Palin, seen by many socially conservative Republicans as a shining beacon for the White House race in 2012, said that if Obama would "toughen up," the American people might see him differently.
"Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decide to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do... I think people would perhaps shift their thinking a little bit and decide well, maybe he's tougher than we think," Palin told Fox News.
The United States is treading a diplomatically delicate path on Iran, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning Tehran on Sunday of "greater costs" over its defiance on its nuclear programme.
Speaking in Doha, Clinton voiced optimism of getting tough new sanctions for Iran through the UN Security Council.
