The present study aims to investigate a comparative analysis of conceptual metaphors in the Persian and English news discourse of CNN concerning the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), adopting a cognitive–critical approach that integrates Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory with Fairclough’s (1989) three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis. The corpus consists of 100 news reports (50 in Persian and 50 in English) collected from CNN’s official website between August 2021 and June 2022, purposefully selected and analyzed through a mixed qualitative–quantitative method. Metaphors were categorized into structural ontological, and orientational types and examined across the descriptive, interpretive, and explanatory levels. The findings revealed that in the Persian discourse, metaphors such as “the JCPOA as a dying entity” and “a collapsing structure” predominated, reflecting a crisis-oriented and pessimistic stance. Conversely, in the English discourse, metaphors like “a reconstructable framework” and “a diplomatic battlefield” were more frequent, emphasizing strategy and potential revival. These contrasts indicate that metaphors in bilingual media not only mirror but also construct distinct cultural and ideological perspectives, shaping public understanding of political realities.