Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Wednesday said the strike amounted to an attack on Iranian soil and vowed to punish Israel. Israel’s top diplomat, Israel Katz, responded with a grave warning: “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will react and attack in Iran.”
Echoing this, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said, “Whoever harms us, we will harm them.”
Would Tehran risk a direct attack? Iran is in a “strategic conundrum,” says Gregory Brew, an Iran expert at Eurasia Group. Tehran needs to respond to “restore deterrence and maintain credibility,” Brew says, but it also “remains the case that Iran does not seek a direct confrontation with either Israel or the US, and this will encourage continued restraint.”
If Iran directly targets Israel, it could spark a broader conflict amid the already devastating war in Gaza. This means Iran is likely to lean on proxies like Hezbollah or militias in Syria and Iraq in terms of its response, says Brew, which brings a degree of plausible deniability.
However Iran chooses to respond, there remains a risk that “Israel will treat it as escalatory and respond with escalation of its own, potentially dragging in the US along with it,” says Brew.
America’s new National Security Strategy confirms what Europeans have feared for months: Washington now sees a strong, unified European Union as a problem to be solved, not an ally to be supported.
In this episode of Tools and Weapons, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith sits down with Ed Policy, President and CEO of the Green Bay Packers, to discuss how purpose-driven leadership and innovation are shaping the future of one of the world’s most iconic sports franchises. Ed shares how technology and community-focused initiatives, from Titletown Tech to health and safety innovations on the field, are transforming not just the game of football, but the economy and culture of Green Bay itself. He explains how combining strategic vision with investment in local startups is keeping talent in the Midwest and creating opportunities that extend far beyond Lambeau Field.
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More than a week after Hondurans cast their ballots in a presidential election, the country is still stuck in a potentially-dangerous post-election fog.