When the world's at stake,
go beyond the headlines.

A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it.***Last Monday, an airstrike hit the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, an attack widely attributed to Israel. The strike killed seven officials, including Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi. Iran has vowed retaliation against Israel, stating that Israeli embassies are “no longer safe.”  We asked five experts to tell us more about the attack and whether it raises the risk of a direct confrontation between Iran and Israel. Read more below. Alex Vatanka Senior Fellow & Founding Director, Iran Program Middle East InstituteIn Tehran, the consensus is that Israel hit the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1 for one reason: to provoke Iran into a major response and pave the way for a regional war. Why so? The Iranian regime judges that Israel, once in open war with Iran, banks on support from the United States and the West in general, and that Israel ultimately wants this war to topple the regime in Tehran. Iranian leaders — despite pressure from the small support base for the regime for a major retaliation — are urging calm. They believe that time is on their side and that post–Oct. 7, Israel has entered an irreversible era of decline. The 84-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei admits that he will not live to see Israel’s demise, but he assures that it’s coming. That may well be, but the Israeli strike is still a big test for Iran’s axis of resistance model. Iran’s regional game plan, including the use of proxies, has had three pillars: to provide Tehran