Sometimes, the bureaucratic U.N. can be a master of understatement.

In a recent report, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency said it is "increasingly concerned" about intelligence reports that point to Iran's continued efforts to develop materials for nuclear weapons. Numerous nations have furnished the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, with evidence of radical Iran's pursuit of nukes, the report stated.

That evidence of Iran's bad intentions would seem to warrant more than the U.N.'s mere "concern." Remember: Iran routinely sponsors terrorism and terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, which have committed appalling acts of violence against civilians. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has also said the nation of Israel should be wiped off the map.

Iran's latest efforts to develop nuclear weapons have occurred despite its being under multiple -- obviously ineffective -- U.N. "sanctions." Iran has also blocked international attempts to openly investigate the nature of its nuclear ambitions.

We do not pretend that confronting and dealing with Iran's nuclear weapons program will be easy or risk-free. It is possible that Israel's military will take preemptive action -- as it did decades ago against Iraq -- if it believes that unstable Iran is truly on the cusp of having the ability to launch a nuclear attack.

But with some of Iran's underground weapons development sites well protected from possible air attack, there is no certainty that Israel would be able to knock out Iran's nuclear program completely.

Whatever the difficulty, though, the nuclear threat that Iran poses cannot be ignored or wished away. And no nation toward which Iran is hostile can trust its fate to the U.N.'s highly doubtful ability to persuade Iran to cease and desist.