After foiling Iran’s potentially murderous acts against Saudi and Israeli interests in the United States, the Obama administration is looking for ways to further penalize the regime, especially before it gets hold of possible weapons of mass destruction.

According to The New York Times, President Obama wants the United Nations to release classified intelligence that proves once and for all that they are experimenting with nukes. The administration is also looking at banning Iran’s central bank, basically crippling its financial system.

With international sanctions barely pinching Iran’s financial surface, a top Democratic lawmaker says the world community has to get more aggressive in stopping the regime’s current trajectory.

“Iran is escalating, I believe, its nuclear development. Iran is increasingly hostile. They have not ceased supporting Hezbollah or Hamas or participating in the — well, bringing of missiles and rockets into Lebanon through Damascus (Syria). It’s a very dangerous situation,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee.

“If you project out a number of years, we are on a collision course. If we want to avoid it, we have to take action to avoid it,” she said.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Fox News that allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons would make the ability to end that regime’s terror efforts that much more difficult.

“Everything that’s wrong with Iran today, the world’s largest financier of international terrorism, for example, gets infinitely worse once they get nuclear weapons and they are very close to that point,” Bolton said.

But Feinstein said going to war with Iran is not an option the United States should consider. Instead, “looking to stop bad behavior short of war” can be undertaken by several untapped methods, especially since sanctions are not having the intended effect.

“I don’t think the sanctions have been as complete as they must — as they should be. I wished they had sanctioned the central bank of Iran and that would affect oil and maybe that’s why they didn’t do it. But that makes a big difference,” she told “Fox News Sunday.”

Expecting some retribution for the alleged plot, which resulted in charges against two men, including an American and a member of the elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s supreme leader said Sunday that Iran is prepared to react.

“If U.S. officials have some delusions, (they must) know that any unsuitable act, whether political or security, will meet a resolute response from the Iranian nation,” state TV quoted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying.

Sanctioning the central bank would mean the U.S. black listing any foreign country or company that does business with the central bank. The effort is opposed by some foreign nations, including U.S. allies who pay the bank for Iran’s oil.

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