The five member nations of the United Nations Security Council are being joined by Germany in a meeting in London to decide how to respond after Iran ignored another deadline to ends its nuclear development activities.
Reports on Monday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has allocated an additional $1.4 billion to build nuclear power plants have ratcheted up international concerns that time is running out on diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from succeeding in its goal.
Oil prices rose correspondingly in the past four days with the increasing tension over a looming confrontation between the Islamic Republic and the UN over Iran's continuing installation of some 3,000 centrifuges used in the uranium enrichment process. 
We dismantled the reverse gear and brakes of the train and threw them away some time ago.
The deadline which passed last week was the second in a series of ultimatums set by the world body in the past 12 months in an attempt to block Iran from winning its apparent race to build a nuclear bomb.
Retorts by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that its nuclear program has “no brake and no reverse gear” have prompted US officials to increase efforts to install a “stop button” on the Iranian uranium enrichment activities.
Ahmadinejad stated outright over the weekend that Iran had no intention of stopping its activities. “We dismantled the reverse gear and brakes of the train and threw them away some time ago,” he said in a speech in Tehran Sunday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded in an interview on ABC-TV Sunday saying she is “prepared to meet with [my] counterpart or the Iranian representative at any time, if Iran will suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities. That should be a clear signal."
Iran launched another test rocket over the weekend, igniting additional fears that the Islamic Republic has progressed toward building an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
The executive deputy of the Iranian aerospace research center, Ali Akbar Bolrou, denied the launch had anything to do with military purposes, telling the Fars News Agency that the rocket was to be used for atmospheric research only.
Israeli officials insist that Iranian intentions are not peaceful, but rather aimed at the destruction of Israel, which it has pledged repeatedly to carry out. Ahmadinejad stated clearly last year that Iran will ultimately “wipe Israel off the map.”
Ahmadinejad has become increasingly brazen in his remarks over the past year, taunting the world body over its inability to slow down his country's hurtle toward achieving its goal.
Despite mounting evidence that Iran is advancing its nuclear development program for military, rather than peaceful purposes, the United Nations has been dragging its feet on tightening sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Limited sanctions were imposed on Iran in December 2006, blocking the transfer of nuclear technology and personnel to Tehran months after Ahmadinejad ignored the first Security Council deadline to end nuclear development activities.
The US has repeatedly tried to convince the international community to impose the sanctions as part of a diplomatic effort to convince Iran to slow down, if not completely end, its uranium enrichment program.
China and Russia in particular have continued to oppose increasing sanctions against Iran in Security Council meetings on the issue. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has continued to insist that the Security Council confine its attempts to limit, not end, Iran’s nuclear development activities.
Recently there have been quiet hints, however, that the U.S. and Israel are not prepared to wait until Iran successfully produces its nuclear weapon. Israel in particular has been clear that it will not tolerate an existential threat to its existence.
Iranian protests that the program is aimed solely at developing nuclear energy for peaceful domestic use have convinced no one. The U.S. and Israel have been warning the international community for months that the Islamic Republic is working toward developing an atomic weapon of mass destruction.
Moreover, a recent internal report by the European Union appeared to confirm those fears, saying there seemed to be no way to stop Iran from ultimately developing nuclear arms.