The Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite terror militia Hezbollah was warning on Tuesday that it would attack Israel if the US presses a military offensive against Iran. The warnings came hours after Iranian forces launched a barrage of missiles at military bases in Iraq where US forces were also deployed, causing no casualties. Iranian military sources claimed that they had killed 80 American military personnel in the attacks in a transparent attempt to mollify domestic anger at the US, while Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps statements darkly warned of further carnage if the US dared to respond. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that Iranian honor had been satisfied while expressing hope that the situation would stabilize and that the US would not see a need to respond further.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday for a ceremony to launch the TurkStream natural-gas pipeline along with his host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The pipeline, which cost an estimated $8 billion, is scheduled to carry around 31 billion cubic meters of Russian-produced natural gas to Turkey every year, for further distribution to European markets.

The Central American country of Honduras announced on Tuesday that it is designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz issued a statement shortly thereafter saying, “I applaud the Honduran government for its important decision to declare Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and to take the necessary sanctions against it. This is an important step in the worldwide war against terrorism.”

Hadar Goldberg and Maya Saveliev, representing the Open University of Israel, won the gold medal at the final event of the 40th World Universities Debate Championship held in Thailand on Friday. The duo bested 384 competing groups, including teams from other Israeli Universities.

The movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel suffered yet another defeat this week when Former NBA all-star Michael Redd announced his participation in a major venture investment firm backed in part by Israeli investment firm OurCrowd and dedicated to exploring Sports-related technology opportunities. The venture, ADvantage Sports Tech Fund, specializes in solutions for the kinds of injuries which plagued Redd during his athletic career.

It is clear to the Iranians that the US could, if it chooses, threaten key regime assets and even the regime itself. Therefore, the Iranian regime will probably not hurry to respond in a way that could bring the unprecedented destruction of its energy infrastructure and endanger the regime.

Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has distinguished itself as perhaps the foremost practitioner of “gray zone” activities, and for nearly four decades the United States has struggled to respond effectively to this asymmetric way of war. For this reason, it is more important than ever for Washington to understand Tehran’s strategy and devise its own gray zone strategy to counter it.