America must give answers," Amirabdollahian said in a post on X. According to Axios citing a U.S. official, Washington told Tehran it "had no involvement" or advanced knowledge of the Israeli strike. Analysts were divided whether the attack on the Iranian embassy compound would spark significantly greater violence. Jon Alterman of Washington's CSIS think tank, said the attack probably reflected Israel's belief that such strikes are deterrents and make a wider conflict less, rather than more, likely. "The Israelis are convinced that if they seek to hang back, the threat will grow and not diminish," he said. "They are persuaded that as long as they do something like this periodically, their adversaries will be deterred." However, Steven Cook, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, saw potential for escalation.
