CEP Senior Advisor Edmund Fitton-Brown writes: "Iran has defined itself in opposition to Israel, the United States, and the wider West since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Over the course of half a century of complex regional and global events, the clerical regime’s hostility and determination to “resist” has never abated, even when Iran finds itself naturally on the same side as the US in a given conflict. For example, when the American-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003 to drive out Iran’s deadliest enemy, the Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, and with the partially articulated intention of giving Iraq’s Shia majority the decisive voice in the country’s government, it only took Iran a matter of weeks to start orchestrating the killing of US and British soldiers."

"Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor to the Counter Extremism Project and former Ambassador of the UK to Yemen, told MailOnline this evening 'it could all very easily spiral out of control'.

'In essence, I think Iran and Israel would both prefer to avoid escalation out of control,' he said.

'But Iran (and Hezbollah) both want to be seen to respond to the Israeli assassinations.

'Calibrating such responses in such a way as to save face and yet avoid escalation gets more difficult with each successive round of skirmishing.

'The US is also part of this picture, seeking both to restrain Israel and to deter Iran,' he said."

"Sir Ivor Roberts, senior adviser to UANI and the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), also spoke to The Sun about a possible retaliation to this week's developments."

"Palestinian militant group Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed Wednesday by a predawn airstrike in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for the shock assassination. 
Iran’s supreme leader vowed revenge against Israel.
On this week’s episode of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent J.J. Green,” Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremism Project, talks about what happened."

CEP Senior Research Analyst Josh Lipowsky writes: "While investigators have blamed Hezbollah and its Iranian backers for the heinous terror attack, even now, 30 years later, justice has remained elusive for the victims of the AMIA bombing. No arrests have been made. Hezbollah remains a threat to global security. And Iran continues to sponsor terrorism around the world."

"How will the death of Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi impact stability in the region?
On this week’s episode of 'The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent JJ Green', Dr. Hans Jakob Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremism Project, says it’s complicated."