Fate is sometimes kind to America. Such merciful intervention happened last summer when Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, rejected the Biden administration’s effort to revive former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It would have been a very bad look for the United States to be lifting sanctions and releasing billions of dollars to the clerical regime while it was killing, beating, and imprisoning young women and girls protesting for freedom.

It’s not crystal clear, however, that the White House and the State Department appreciate their good fortune. Comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Iran envoy, Rob Malley, suggest that President Joe Biden’s Iran team would still go to Vienna, ready to sign, if Khamenei would just say “yes.” Although the administration would surely be thrilled to see the theocracy fall, the White House view likely aligns with the Central Intelligence Agency’s assessment: the current Iranian rebellion isn’t regime-threatening.