Despite their ongoing failure to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, the White House seems to be satisfied with the current state of affairs in regard to the Islamic Republic. They appear to believe that all is well and getting progressively better. So much so that, in his latest State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama said, “Diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran. … We’ve halted the progress of its nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material.” He then vowed to “veto any new sanctions bills” that supposedly threaten to undo that progress.

The Americans aren’t alone in this belief. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Frederica Mogherini recently published an op-ed in The Washington Post opposing new sanctions. They claimed that these sanctions would encourage Iranian opponents of a comprehensive nuclear deal. “For the first time,” they wrote, “we may have a real chance to resolve one of the world’s longest standing security threats—and the chance to do it peacefully