Iranian officials addressed large crowds in Teheran and other cities on Tuesday morning to mark the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Speeches by regime figures often included thundering threats against Israel, the US and various other countries as well as complaints that their peace-loving regime is always being harassed and terrorized even as it insists on seeking nothing but to live in harmony with all its neighbors. Meanwhile, a satellite Iran’s space program failed to launch into orbit on Sunday crashed in a sparsely inhabited area of Iran’s southeast, causing multiple explosions according to news agencies.

Calls by Palestinian leaders to launch large-scale protests against US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” have been met with some alarm in Sunni Arab states, leading them to “advise” the Palestinian Authority to “turn down the volume” on the effort, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post which quoted a senior PA official. “Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have advised President to start calming things down,” the official said. “They are worried that the strong criticism and calls for demonstrations against the Trump plan would cause instability in the region. The president has assured them that he does not support violent protest or terrorism as a way of protesting the Trump plan.”

Researchers at Tel Aviv University recently published the results of their efforts to find new treatments for cancer based on their study of a benign tumor found in the fossilized remains of a dinosaur which were uncovered in Canada several years ago. The article, published Monday in Scientific Reports, will be added to a growing body of literature aiding medical science in treating various forms of cancer. Elsewhere, researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheeba announced recently that they’ve made progress in finding solutions to the problem of antibiotic-resistant infections.

The fighting in Syria’s Idlib Province took another dramatic turn on Monday when artillery fired by forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad killed five Turkish soldiers, even as massive numbers of refugees from Idlib continued to move towards the Turkish border, threatening a new crisis with potential ramifications for Europe. David Swanson, spokesman for the United Nation’s humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, told AFP on Monday that “The number of people being displaced in this crisis is now spiralling out of control.”

The Palestinian Authority, established in 1994 in the Oslo Accords, was supposed to enable the Palestinians living in the territories to enjoy self-rule in a democratically functioning regime that respected their human and civil rights. Additionally, the PA was supposed to lead the Palestinians toward a permanent peace with Israel through diplomatic negotiations.

Escalating tensions and violence between the United States and Iran have stoked fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East. What are the prospects of all-out war with Iran? What can the United States do to manage escalation, catalyze diplomacy, and use the military instrument to advance its maximum pressure policy while achieving maximum deterrence? And how does the crisis with Iran affect Washington’s deterrence posture and alliance relationships elsewhere in the world?

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