Vice President Joseph Biden asserted we have the harshest sanctions in the history of sanctions.
Yet Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said that the sanctions are not working:
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged Monday that increasingly stiff international sanctions have yet to compel Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions.
Panetta expressed hope that the sanctions would compel Iran to "do what’s right."
Panetta said, "These sanctions are having a serious impact in terms of the economy in Iran," but he said that "the results … may not be obvious at the moment."