The sanctions efforts we support in Congress, alongside the four U.N. Security Council resolutions criticizing Iran’s nuclear program and applying multilateral sanctions against the regime, seek to impel Iran to walk itself back from the nuclear precipice.

We remain skeptical about Tehran’s intentions. Iranian leaders are skilled negotiators with expertise in delay tactics and obfuscation.

Yet to ignore the overtures coming from Iran during this period of furious public diplomacy would have been imprudent, especially when a peaceful resolution preventing Iran from achieving nuclear capability is the outcome we all aspire to achieve.

But what happens in Tehran seems to stay in Tehran, and President Rouhani’s charm offensive didn’t follow him to New York.

Rouhani’s recitation of grievances against the West and diatribe against Israel during his General Assembly speech were a familiar refrain. His inability to reciprocate President Obama’s offer of a handshake was weak.