The latest remarks by Yadollah Javani, deputy political chief of the IRGC, are less an explanation of Tehran’s agreement with Washington than an attempt to rewrite the story of the regime’s retreat. If the agreement truly had the blessing of the regime’s leadership from the beginning, why were the regime’s own loyalists mobilized against it? The Iranian regime has come under its most intense military, economic, and political pressure in years. Faced with growing pressure, Tehran appears to have concluded that accepting an unfavorable agreement was preferable to confronting a far more dangerous escalation. Today, another political retreat is being presented as a strategic victory.