Former Vice President Dick Cheney blasted the Iran nuclear deal, saying once the country ends up with nuclear weapons, nearby countries will then work toward getting their own.

According to Cheney, it is only a matter of time until the countries in the region will find the need to defend themselves from Iran's nuclear weapons — and the world will be close to how it was nearly 70 years ago when atomic bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"What Obama has done, has in effect, sanctioned the acquisition by Iran of nuclear capability. And it can be a few years down the road. It doesn't make any difference. It's a matter of months until we're going to see a situation where other people feel they have to defend themselves by acquiring their own capability," Cheney said on Fox News Tuesday night. "And that will, in fact, I think put us closer to use — actual use of nuclear weapons than we've been at any time since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II."

According to Cheney, he understands what it is like being in the White House and dealing with nuclear problems.

"I think that was one of the biggest problems we had when we were in office, that we were concerned about, this nuclear proliferation. We'd seen the Iraqis in '81 with a nuclear reactor. The Israelis took it out. In '91, they had a second program, we took it out in Desert Storm. When we took down Saddam Hussein in '03, [Moammar] Gadhafi gave up his nuclear materials and that let us wrap up [Pakistani nuclear scientist] A.Q. Khan," he added.

A deal was reached Tuesday between Iran, the U.S., Britain, Germany, China and France. It gives Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program — a deal that is being heavily criticized by the right.

Before being George W. Bush's vice president from 2001 to 2009, Cheney was the secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993.