["Environmental Policy and Governance, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nWater governance is increasingly influenced by a paradox at the nexus of environmental scarcity and food security. Escalating water scarcity crises coincide with geopolitical disruptions that have exposed the fragility of global food supply chains, prompting states to expand domestic food production at the expense of water conservation. Despite scholarly efforts to analyze water governance, this policy paradox has not been sufficiently investigated. The paper aims to fill this gap by tracing a shift in water policymaking in the case of Iran, a country under international pressure, which intensifies the food security challenge. Drawing from content analysis of numerous Farsi documents, the paper employs the Narrative Policy Framework to explain this transformation. The analysis reveals two competing narratives on water policymaking in Iran: one narrative emphasizes water consumption reduction as a part of sustainable development practices. The other emphasizes self‐sufficiency in agricultural products to protect the nation against external threats—a goal that necessitates increased water consumption. However, a significant shift happened in the latter discourse, acknowledging the imperative to conserve water. The analysis indicates that international pressure catalyzed this unprecedented shift within the resistance narrative. In this transformation, water scarcity poses a security challenge for the long‐term survival against external threats. This reframing led the conservative ruling elite to endorse the water consumption reduction, paving the way to overcome the other legal and bureaucratic barriers to formulate water‐saving policies. The paper contributes to the field by demonstrating the important role of international forces and narrative in shaping environmental policymaking.\n"]