James' World 2

The conflict ignited last week, when Hezbollah launched a rocket attack against Israel, in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom Israel assassinated in the opening strikes of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Since then, the Israeli military has responded with an escalating military campaign across Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Parliament announced on Monday that it would postpone for two years legislative elections that had been set to take place in May because of the conflict. The Lebanese government has faced considerable pressure to disarm Hezbollah, which is also an entrenched political party and social movement.

Hezbollah is facing rising public frustration at home, where some Lebanese say they have now been dragged unwillingly into a dangerous and deadly confrontation with Israel without any clear benefit.

Analysts say the Israeli actions could signal that a wider ground invasion in Lebanon is in the works. The Israeli military has called up roughly 100,000 reserve soldiers as part of the war with Iran, some of whom have been sent to the northern border.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, dismissed that prospect. “This is part of our forward defense posture. This is a measure to make sure that our troops in those positions are safe,” Lt. Col. Shoshani told reporters on Monday.

More on the Fighting in the Middle East

---

• Iran’s De Facto Leader: Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a close confidant of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran was determined to avenge the killing of Khamenei.

• Israel Strikes Oil Facilities: The Israeli military struck several Iranian fuel sites, sending huge balls of fire and smoke into the air and causing explosions in Tehran and the neighboring city of Karaj. The attacks appeared to be the first on the country’s energy infrastructure since the war began.

• Desalination Plants: Water desalination plants have come under attack in Iran and on the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain, threatening a resource vital to life in the harsh desert climates of the region.

• Iran’s Uranium: American intelligence agencies have determined that Iran or potentially another group could retrieve Iran’s primary store of highly enriched uranium even though it was entombed under the country’s nuclear site at Isfahan by U.S. strikes last year, according to multiple officials familiar with the classified reports.

• The Spine of a Militarized State: With their pervasive military, political, and economic clout, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are often considered the main impediment to regime change, or any change, in Iran.

• Global Divisions: Brazil, China, and Russia all denounced the U.S.-Israeli attacks, but other nations in the BRICS group haven’t, even though Iran is a fellow member.

• U.S. Service Members: Another American service member has died in the war with Iran, the Pentagon said on Sunday, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in the conflict to seven.

• U.S. Assessment on Regime Change: A report by the National Intelligence Council completed before the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran assessed that even a large-scale military assault on the country would be unlikely to topple its theocratic government, according to U.S. officials briefed on the work.