Tehran selling deal with US as victory – but for Iranians it was necessity

Iran's leadership is trying to present its emerging memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US not as a retreat, but as the result of resistance and victory. That is not an easy argument to make.

The country has just gone through a damaging war, the economy is under severe pressure, and parts of the Islamic Republic's own support base have spent months denouncing any compromise with Washington.

There are also Iranians, both inside the country and abroad, who see the crisis not as a moment for diplomacy, but as an opportunity for regime change.

This is the divided political landscape in which Tehran is now trying to sell the deal.

Senior Iranian officials have framed the deal as a win. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the Speaker of parliament and the leading Iranian figure in the talks, said Iran had taken "a long step towards final victory".

President Masoud Pezeshkian has described the understanding as potentially transformative, saying that if fully implemented it could resolve many of Iran's problems and create "a different world" in Iran and the Middle East.

Qalibaf's role is significant because he is not identified with Pezeshkian's moderate camp; his public support suggests the deal has backing from more powerful parts of the system even within Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guards.

The leadership is also presenting the agreement as a victory because, in Tehran's argument, the US and Israel failed to achieve their main objectives.