Iran

As Iran braces for further rounds of conflict with Israel, it will seek ways to control the escalatory path,” said Dr Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow for Middle East and North Africa security at the Royal United Services Institute, a leading UK think tank. “Regime operatives may deploy asymmetric warfare tactics like cyberattacks, assassination attempts or other subversive means to ‘export’ the resistance against Israel,” Ozcelik said. “The goal is to destabilise, distract and disrupt western capitals while evading direct responsibility for its actions.”

Iran sees this as a cheap way of fighting an undeclared war against its opponents and of rallying audiences its wants to impress in the Middle East … They don’t have the resources to fight any other way. There is a long history here.”

Iran's legacy inside Syria over the course of the war, but also predating that, is very negative from the Syrian point of view. And so there is very little appetite for re-engagement with Iran, given this dark and stained, tarnished history of engagement."