An agreement would have been preferable, of course. But it’s not all bad news out of Vienna right now. The decision to extend until July the deadline for negotiations with Iran over the country’s nuclear program is, essentially, a step in the right direction. And making these talks a success has crucial implications far beyond Iran.

Iran’s nuclear program remains frozen during the negotiations, so Tehran cannot use the time to move closer to a bomb. If the talks had ended in complete failure, with both sides giving up and walking away from the negotiating table, Iran would no doubt restart its program, causing the United States and its allies to choose between military action and living with a nuclear-armed Iran. Either choice would have had devastating consequences, possibly marking a fatal blow to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide.

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