If the agreement reached in these negotiations is killed, there probably won’t be another chance for many years. There is no mysterious process that could cause a better deal to materialize.
As for imposing additional sanctions, there is nothing in the Iranians’ record to suggest that at some level of economic pain they would cry uncle and capitulate to hard-line demands. If this were possible, it would have happened by now after many years of debilitating sanctions. Just as would be the case with Washington, there is no political or psychological room in Iran for capitulation under that kind of pressure.
The principal source of the Iranians’ doubt and hesitation in these nuclear talks has not been what would happen if there is no agreement. It is instead what they expect to happen if there is an agreement.
Congressional opposition has given Tehran plenty of reasons to doubt Washington’s willingness to strike a workable deal, and even to doubt the Obama administration’s ability to fulfill the U.S. end of the bargain. Any new deal-killing action by Congress would confirm the Iranians’ doubts and lead more of them to conclude that there is no use trying to do business with Washington.
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