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Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: The U.S.-Iran war goes (even more) regional, Trump gets his new director of national intelligence, and the AI industry asks to be reined in.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: The U.S.-Iran war goes (even more) regional, Trump gets his new director of national intelligence, and the AI industry asks to be reined in.

Is the U.S.-Iran War Expanding?

After a brief lull in fighting, the U.S.-Iran war is heating up again this week—and it appears to be pulling in more countries.

Iran launched a surprise missile attack on U.S. forces in Jordan on Tuesday. Egypt was hit by a drone attack on Wednesday, seemingly drawing the country into the Iran war for the first time. No country or group has claimed responsibility, but the attack at Egypt’s Damietta port caused a fire on two vessels—including a U.S. tanker. And Kuwait, which has faced repeated attacks during the war as Iran strikes countries that host U.S. troops, was once again targeted on Thursday. That same day, Jordan said it intercepted missiles fired by Iran.

But perhaps the biggest development came in Iraq.

A new phase in the war? The United States and Saudi Arabia conducted joint strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq on Wednesday. At least 20 fighters with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of militias, were reportedly killed.

U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said the joint strikes targeted “Iran-aligned terrorists” who’ve been directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to attack U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure. Centcom said there had been over 30 “IRGC-directed” drone attacks over the previous 72 hours, and that between February and April there were more than 600 attempted attacks on U.S. citizens and facilities by Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

The strikes marked the first time that Saudi Arabia publicly acknowledged involvement in the war. Though the kingdom reportedly carried out covert strikes against Iran in previous months and has been accused by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen of bombing the country’s international airport in Sanaa, Saudi Arabia has largely sought to avoid becoming too entangled in the fight and has signaled it does not seek further escalation. But with the Houthis now imposing a blockade on Saudi shipping and Iran-backed militias targeting Saudi energy, Riyadh may struggle to distance itself from the conflict.

Some experts say it shouldn’t come as a shock that Iran is leveraging its influence with militias in Iraq to cause problems for the United States and its allies. Though Iraq has not been a focal point in the U.S.-Iran war so far, it’s debatable whether this week’s strikes represent the opening of a new front.

“We shouldn’t be surprised,” Victoria J. Taylor, a former deputy........

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