The conflict between Israel and Iran has recalibrated strategic priorities and forced regional actors to reassess their threat perceptions and alliance equations

Critics feared it would plunge the Middle East into a wider war. That doomsday scenario has not come to pass, at least for now: Iran made only symbolic retaliation against America; soon after, a ceasefire ended the fighting between Iran and Israel.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made his first public appearance since the start of Iran's conflict with Israel, according to state media. State television footage showed him greeting worshippers at a mosque on Saturday during a ceremony a day before the Shia festival of Ashura.