Has Iran won a war it didn’t start against the United States? “Iran’s initial standard for victory was simply to survive,” said HA Hellyer, a Middle East expert with the Royal United Services Institute. The regime has demonstrated it is not going anywhere, and Tehran has changed the calculus on the strait of Hormuz”. “Until the US accepts it can’t get its way by bombing, Iran has effective leverage. But if Tehran may have short or medium-term leverage, any idea that it has won the war is exaggerated.