Tensions between Israel and Iran are escalating amid an already volatile Middle East, raising fears of a broader and more dangerous conflict.

Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” the network of militias it has fostered in the Middle East to help it fight Israel, has become seriously degraded, experts say.

The attack gives Iranians a common cause, despite their feelings about their government . As the Stimson Center’s longtime Iran analyst Barbara Slavin notes: Iran can and like

Israel warns "Tehran will burn" if Iran continues firing missiles, while state media say 60 people have been killed in a strike on Iran's capital.

Rising tensions over Iran's nuclear program have escalated amid diplomatic breakdowns, military preparations, and threats of conflict across the Middle East.

After such a devastating attack from Israel, Iran’s leaders see no choice but to fight back. Any sign of weakness would severely undermine the regime’s legitimacy at home.

Israel’s attack on Iran was long in the making – the result of years of meticulous planning by Israel and days of high-stakes talks between Tel Aviv and Washington, officials told CNN.

The opening of a new front in the conflict between Israel and Iran has brought geopolitical risk straight back into the foreign exchange calculus. After the Israeli strikes Friday morning, the dollar witnessed an element of the “flight-to-safety” characteristic traditionally associated with military escalation but as ING points out in its daily research note,

At least three Israelis were killed and 70 others were injured in retaliatory missile strikes by Iran, Israeli media reports said Saturday, as

"Vladimir Putin condemned Israel's military operation against Iran and expressed serious concern about a possible escalation of the conflict," a Kremlin aide told reporters. MOSCO