Iran

The assertion is just “psychological warfare,” says one Lebanese expert on the militant group.

The rapper, Toomaj Salehi, was initially arrested after releasing music in support of the 2022 protests over the death of a young woman in police custody.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is in China this week as tensions have risen over trade, security, Russia’s war on Ukraine and the Middle East crisis.

The strike on Iran on Friday was originally intended to be much broader in scope, but after intense pressure from allies, Israeli leaders agreed to ratchet it down.

In the last two weeks, the president worked to avoid an immediate disaster. But it’s his own policies that have set the region on its current dangerous trajectory.

Facing deep economic troubles and a restive population, the government seems to have adopted a policy of declaring victory over Israel and cracking down at home, analysts say.

The retaliatory attack damaged a defense system near Natanz, a city in central Iran that is critical to the country’s nuclear weapons program.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, lost considerable support after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Tensions with Iran have helped him claw some of it back.

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas spills over, we sketched out a social network of the alliances and enmities at play.

This attack used a fraction of the fire power Iran deployed last week when it launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel.