Last week, leaders from all over the world met in Geneva, to, among other things, discuss the course of action regarding Iran’s nuclear proliferation program. The six nuclear world powers were present, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, and Iran’s foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, all pushing towards a pacified state regarding Iran’s nuclear developments.

At its conclusion, many leaders seemed optimistic about the chances of an accord being reached, although Iran was still upset about specific wording in the resolution they had drafted there. Currently, Zarif is taking the proposal back to Iran and its president Hassan Rouhani to tweak and perfect the wording. One major snafu to the Iranians is the refusal of the Western world to recognize its inherent right to nuclear proliferation. Iran argues that they deserve to have nuclear capabilities in order to provide power for their people (as modeled off of France, who uses nuclear energy for nearly 75 percent of their entire energy output, according to the World Nuclear Association).

For a country that’s been hit extremely hard with sanctions and other regional tensions in the recent past, the new government of Iran wants to provide for its people and allow them to live a comfortable lifestyle as that of their Western counterparts. However, American officials refuse to accept Iran’s inherent right for nuclear technology. A senior administration official said before the latest round of talks in Geneva, “The United States does not believe there is an inherent right to enrichment, and we have said that repeatedly to Iran,” according to The New York Times. Some American politicians have gone so far as to pine for even greater consequences on Iran to deter them from pursuing nuclear capabilities. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee has responded to the lack of outright success in Geneva by proposing harsher sanctions on Iran, in the attempt to get them to throw out all nuclear proliferation plans. But this rhetoric is just plain silly. Iran has been hit by sanctions for years, has been shunned by the international community for years all because of their nuclear program, yet they have pursued it nonetheless. There is simply no indication that further sanctions would accomplish anything different than the noncompliance we’ve seen up to this point. Instead, America needs to recognize that Iran has every right to try to pursue nuclear capability, since no one nation can hold a monopoly on a technology. Once this concession is made, talks can go further with the United States identifying what practices are and are not acceptable for Iran to undertake. By allowing Iran the ability to pursue nuclear weapons, the U.S. will foster a strong new relation that will make Iran’s program more transparent to the international community, increasing safety and security for all nations. With Rouhani’s government opening up to peace talks, now is the perfect opportunity for America to regain political standing with Iran and to provide for the safe and secure future of its citizens and the citizens of its allies.