Against the backdrop of Iranian bluster, ballistic missile launches, and complaints about how terrorism and human rights-related sanctions continue, the Obama administration appears ready to violate its previous commitments to Congress. The White House seems set to offer Tehran sanctions relief above and beyond what is called for under the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the so-called Iran deal. Indeed, by allowing Iran even greater access to the U.S. banking system, the Obama administration is not only violating a red line commitment to Congress but is going above and beyond what even the Islamic Republic might expect.

Consider the recent comments — translated by AEI’s Iran project — by Majid Ansari, vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs, with regard to the U.S. Treasury Department’s new sanctions relative to Iran’s missile program: “From a legal standpoint, the Foreign Ministry must respond, but it is not obviously a violation of the JCPOA.”

So, the Obama administration is bending over backwards to keep the Iran deal alive responding to Iranian bluster with diplomatic submission to give Iranian leaders no excuse to walk away from a deal to which at best the Iranian leadership is indifferent. Behind-the-scenes, however, Iranian legal experts acknowledge that Tehran’s argument — that any sanctions violate the JCPOA’s precepts on normalizing Iran’s trade — is a stretch at best and false at worse.

How unfortunate it is, then, that Secretary of State John Kerry and his team appear to be so blinded by their desire to pretend that their deal is a success that they are willing to conform to the most tenuous of Iranian arguments. The end result does not make the JCPOA more secure; rather, it encourages further Iranian bluster. It’s time to draw the line.