Iran’s nearly week-long protests, sparked by economic despair but quickly widening into demands for broad change, have turned deadly.

After the 12-day war between Iran and “Israel” ended, fundamental questions resurfaced within Iranian political and media circles, most notably: Is a new war looming?

In a fresh escalation on Iraq’s crowded political stage, Iran-linked militias have launched a fierce campaign against the U.S. president’s envoy to Baghdad, Mark Savaya, going as far as issuing direct threats.

Tensions between Iran and the Gulf states have spiked sharply in the wake of a GCC summit in Manama, where member countries renewed their call for Tehran to end its “occupation” of the three Emirati islands.

In a move that sent political shockwaves through Iraq, the Official Gazette published a decision listing Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi group as terrorist organizations, a step the Iraqi central bank later walked back, calling it an “unintentional mistake.”