Early Monday morning, the damage from the attacks appears to be relatively limited, but the situation could change quickly, according to Anders Persson, associate professor and researcher at Linnaeus University.
Even though both sides seem to intend this to be a limited escalation, it only takes a missile hitting a civilian target with many dead and injured for this to immediately become larger, he says.
Persson describes the development as expected after Israel struck targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Sunday. Iran, which had promised to respond to the attacks, then fired missiles at Israel, which in turn responded with attacks on Iran.
In the absence of an agreement, I think we may see these types of limited escalations regularly, he says.
US President Donald Trump has consistently claimed that the war will end soon, but there is nothing to indicate that, according to Persson, who says it is difficult to predict how Trump will act now.
I think Donald Trump seems to be contradicting himself a bit. On the one hand, he yesterday urged the parties to exercise restraint. At the same time, I think Israel has synchronized what it is doing with the United States because there have been no condemnations from the American side.
