The Middle East is dominating this week's headlines.

On Consider This, we dive into what's at stake in a war between Israel and Iran.

Plus, we take a look back at the Iraq War and Lessons from 2003.

Listen now to the Consider This podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Let me see. wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.

UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez says the U.S. bombing in Iran brought the Middle East to a perilous turn.

He's calling for diplomacy and restraint, as NPR's

Michelle Kellerman reports. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations says the world should be

thanking President Trump for, in his words, incredible bravery and morality for U.S. strikes on

Iranian nuclear sites. But U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is worried

about the fallout. We now risk descending into a red hole of retaliation after retaliation.

To avoid it, diplomacy must prevail. The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says he's willing

to go to Iran, saying there's a window for diplomacy.

But if that closes, Rafael Grossi warns, the world's nuclear nonproliferation regime could collapse.

Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Washington.

Air Force General Dan Kane, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says according to initial assessments,

the goal of the mission was achieved that three Iranian nuclear sites received severe damage and destruction.

He called it a complex and high-risk mission.

This operation was designed to severely degrade Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure.

It was planned and executed across multiple domains and theaters with coordination that reflects

our ability to project power globally with speed and precision at the time and place of

our nation's choosing.

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