The Obama administration may finally be coming to terms with the Iranian threat.

Certainly, President Obama is sounding tougher this week regarding Tehran than he did during his first year in office.

Yesterday, he vowed to hold Iran “accountable” for its “reckless behavior.” And he refused to “take any options off the table in terms of how we operate with Iran.”

Obama was discussing America’s response to disclosures that top officials in Iran (specifically, in the elite Revolutionary Guards and its terror-sponsoring Quds Force) plotted to kill a Saudi envoy on US soil and blow up Saudi and Israeli embassies.

To his credit, the president insisted on “accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity.”

Nor did he downplay Iran’s bloody record. The latest plot, he said, “is part of a pattern of dangerous and reckless behavior by the Iranian government” — calling it “just one example of a series of steps that they’ve taken to create violence.”

No kidding, there: Most of the world has been painfully aware of Tehran’s mischief — ever since its 1979 revolution.

It’s been a chief sponsor of global terror, has murdered US soldiers (either directly or through proxies) in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere and seeks Israel’s complete annihilation.

Oh, yeah: And it’s busily building nukes.

Despite all this, Obama insisted on giving the mullahs the benefit of the doubt when he entered the White House — offering to “extend a hand” and engage in “dialogue.”

His team spent endless months trying to coax them to end their quest for A-bombs.

Those efforts, of course, went nowhere.

In fact, Tehran’s temerity has only grown.

As the new plot, meant to be carried out within America’s borders, vividly shows.

For now, Obama says he’ll seek “the toughest sanctions” against Iran and step up worldwide efforts to see that it “pays a price for this kind of behavior.”

A State Department aide yesterday said US officials “have had direct contact with Iran” in the wake of the new disclosures, despite the lack of formal relations between Washington and Tehran. Hmm …

Keeping fully in mind that words can be cheap, we find this all encouraging news.

For Obama & Co., the proof will be in the follow-through. America’s response — or lack thereof — will have profound consequences … throughout the world.