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Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***IranOn June 13, Israel launched a major offensive against Iran using a combination of airpower and ground-based operatives. Operation Rising Lion struck a range of nuclear and military facilities, as well as the upper echelons of Iran’s military command and top nuclear experts. The United States joined in an offensive capacity just over a week later, hitting nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordo as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. Iran responded to Israel with drone and missile attacks — largely but not entirely repelled — and targeted a U.S. airbase in Qatar in response to the American attack, causing no damage or injuries in a telegraphed retaliation.Emerging assessments in the United States and Israel concur that the attacks set back Iran’s nuclear program, but there is debate over whether its recovery might take months or years. It is uncertain whether the lull in hostilities since a ceasefire took effect on June 24 will prove merely a pause or a pivot to renewed negotiations between Washington and Tehran. President Trump maintains that Iran must cease all uranium enrichment on its own soil, but whether a battered Iranian government will now compromise on its own enrichment red line remains to be seen.Protests in Iran after Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Image: Tasnim News Agency via Wikimedia Commons.JihadistsOn Sunday, June 22, a suicide bomber attacked the Greek Orthodox Mar St. Elias Church in the Damascus neighborhood of Dweila, killing at least 25 people and injuring 63 others. It is the largest violent incident against the Christian community in Syria since the 1860 massacre. The next day, Syria’s Ministry of Interior and General Intelligence carried out an