Expert: The conflict continues; Iran maintains military deterrence through reciprocal retaliation and successive strikes

On March 19, the military conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran entered its 20th day, as Iran continued its counterattacks. Li Zixin, an assistant researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, said that the main principle underlying Iran’s current retaliatory actions is still “reciprocal response.” Due to the gap in military strength, Iran’s “reciprocity” essentially manifests mainly as deterrence reciprocity—meaning that when Iran’s own energy infrastructure is severely struck, Iran will retaliate against similar facilities in the region or against the opponent’s high-value targets. At the same time, Iran’s current counterattacks also have a tendency toward chain reactions: Iran uses the number of strikes to make up for deficiencies in deterrence effectiveness. By adopting continuous, multi-phase, no-intermission saturation attack patterns, Iran seeks to add high-intensity and sustained military pressure to the opponent, thereby disrupting the opponent’s defensive tempo and exhausting interception resources. (CCTV News)