Sanctions, after all, will be just a pin-prick. They will be an irritation to Iran, but little more than that, certainly for as long as the price of Iran's main export, energy, remains so high. Any sanctions that the UN Security Council can agree to won't be very tough in any case.

Just about the only virtue of imposing sanctions is that it makes a statement that the Security Council is united in its view that nuclear proliferation is not welcome. So sanctions might as well be imposed, and the date of imposition might as well be now.

But let us all be realistic about the situation. Iran is going nuclear, and, thanks to those high energy prices, can afford to do so.

Courtesy of America's invasion of Iraq, Iran's main regional enemy, Saddam Hussein, is out of power. Courtesy of the post-invasion debacle, but probably also courtesy of simple practicality, Iran has no need to fear military attack by America. Sanctions, plus any amount of words from Condoleezza Rice or the European foreign ministers, will make no difference. Look what difference American sanctions made to India after it declared itself a nuclear power in 1998? Not a jot. Now, India has a nuclear deal with George W. Bush under which it doesn't even have to subject its nuclear installations to international inspection or verification. So why should Iran care about sanctions or anything else?

I don't agree that this means that Iran's political strategy has been especially brilliant, or that it has outsmarted America. All the cards were in its hand. All it had to do was to play them, and follow logic forward. Who gave Iran those cards? A.Q. Khan, America itself, and the oil markets. Get used to it. Iran is becoming a nuclear power. What everyone needs to do now is to work out how to live with that fact.