Following recent developments in the regional and international order and the intensification of economic, security, and military pressures against the Islamic Republic of Iran, balancing domestic priorities with regional commitments has become a key strategic challenge. In this context, the “Iran First” discourse has emerged as an indigenous strategy for national survival and sustained national engagement. This study aims to develop a strategic framework for the “Iran First” strategy through qualitative content analysis of high-level policy documents. The study adopted a qualitative research design using an inductive approach to qualitative content analysis. The study population comprised all high-level policy and strategic documents of the country, from which documents were selected through purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using the three-stage coding procedure developed by Strauss and Corbin. The findings indicate that the “Iran First” strategy can be explained through six major categories: economic (domestic production and a resistance economy); security and defense (deterrent defense and infrastructure security); cultural and social (national cohesion and social mobilization); science and technology (scientific self-reliance and a knowledge-based economy); political and institutional (effective governance and religious democracy); and regional and international (resistance-oriented diplomacy based on domestic capabilities). Based on these categories, a paradigmatic model of the “Iran First” strategy was developed. The model encompasses causal conditions (external pressures and structural weaknesses), contextual conditions (revolutionary culture and national capacities), intervening conditions (macro-level policymaking and resource mobilization), the central strategy (prioritization of domestic affairs), and desired outcomes (system survival, national resilience, and sustained regional engagement).