In its dealings with Iran, the White House has been abundantly clear that President Obama does not want to mix issues. Nuclear negotiations, the Obama administration maintains, are about nuclear issues only — centrifuges, uranium and the like.

Working under these guidelines, Obama’s negotiators have resisted demanding concessions regarding Iran’s backing and funding of paramilitary terrorist organizations, the right of Israel to exist and Iran’s atrocious human rights record. They have not even made the apparent no-brainer request for the release of Saeed Abedini, the Idaho-based Christian pastor and American citizen who has been unjustly imprisoned in Iran since 2012.