It has been six months since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran. One of their main goals was to bring down the regime in Tehran, but Iran's leaders have managed to hold onto power.
Instead of collapsing, the regime has dug in its heels and taken an even harder line.
Here is a look at where things stand at the war's half-year mark.
Weeks of U.S.-Israeli assaults
The U.S. and Israel intensively bombed Iran from Feb. 28 until a ceasefire was declared on April 8. The attacks killed dozens of top Iranian leaders on the first day of the war, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled for more than three decades.
The five-week assault at the beginning of the war wiped out Iran's limited air force, including its air defenses, and virtually all of its navy, aside from small speed boats.
The attacks also inflicted damage on Iran's missile and drone programs, though Iran has maintained the ability to strike back during limited, periodic shooting exchanges between the two sides in recent months.
Despite its reduced military capabilities, Iran has been able to largely keep the Strait of Hormuz shut down and has enough missiles and drones to remain a dangerous threat to the Arab countries in the Gulf as well as Middle Eastern states further away, including Israel.
The war has killed 3,375 Iranians and left more than 33,000 injured, according to the World Health Organization.
The U.S. military death toll is 18, with hundreds of service members injured, according to the Pentagon.
Israel and Gulf countries recorded dozens of deaths during the war.
U.S. military forces remain in place throughout the region — on land and at sea — and could resume military action if ordered to do so. But the intensive bombing campaign at the start of the war has reduced U.S. munitions stockpiles. Military analysts say the U.S. still has considerable firepower, but this issue has raised questions about how long the U.S. might be willing or able to maintain a high-tempo air campaign.
Using the Strait of Hormuz as a bargaining chip
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Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow waterway that's critical to the world's oil and gas supply — into its biggest strategic weapon. After responding to the U.S.-Israeli attacks by shutting down the shipping route and striking U.S. installations in Gulf nations, Tehran is doubling down on its control of the area.
The disruption to the region's shipping, especially the transit of crude oil and liquefied natural gas, has shaken economies around the world, driving up the cost of fuel, fertilizer and other goods.
Iran and Oman are negotiating a deal to temporarily open the strait. But the Trump administration has rejected the arrangement, refusing to recognize Iranian control or tolerate tolls on an international waterway. Trump even threatened to bomb Oman, a U.S. ally.
Nearby Gulf countries are desperate to get their energy exports moving again. They have tried to use alternate routes and pipelines but the Strait of Hormuz will remain vital to shipping into the near future, analysts say.
Stalled diplomacy
President Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran in recent months and the U.S. has carried out periodic airstrikes, most of them directed at Iranian missile and drone facilities on or near the country's Gulf coast.
After the ceasefire took effect in April, the U.S. said it was would pursue negotiations with Iran, but the talks failed to produce a breakthrough and are now on hold.
"At the end of the day, it's unrealistic to expect that you can undo 47 years of bad blood overnight," says Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in charge of Iranian affairs.
"The reality is the best-case scenario at the end of this process is there won't be a clear-cut winner. There'll be a compromise, and that's the best thing we can hope for," Vatanka said.
This week, the Trump administration announced Operation Economic Outcast, saying it will target Tehran and its global financial links through ramped-up sanctions.
The move comes as Iran faces its worst economic crisis since the 1980s, according to the Eurasia Group, a political risk consulting firm.
This is a product of several factors that include Iran's long-term mismanagement over the course of decades, the widespread damage inflicted by the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes, and the ongoing U.S. blockade to prevent Iran from exporting its oil.
Even though its economy has taken a massive hit, Vatanka notes, the Iranian regime's control over the country remains solid.
Inside the ruling government — especially after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the rise of his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the new supreme leader — there is a growing consensus that open-ended conflict threatens its long-term survival, according to Vatanka. He says senior figures, including Supreme National Security Council head Mohsen Rezaei and Ahmad Vahidi, chief of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, are quietly backing a return to talks.
"Trusting in repression as your only way out of crisis, if that's actually a sound strategy ... plenty of folks inside the Iranian regime, through Iranian media, are saying that cannot be sustainable," Vatanka says.
The everyday cost of war
Six months of conflict and severe economic hardship have made daily life exhausting for regular Iranians. Iran's economy is expected to shrink by 5.4% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Inflation has soared and the value of the rial currency has plummeted.
"We are buying all our food items on credit because nobody has cash," said a 30-year-old blogger living in Iran, who says almost all her money goes toward basic meals.
"Among friends, our big topic of conversation is where you can find the cheapest provisions. I'm so in debt to my grocery store that the other day I couldn't buy tomato paste to make pasta for dinner."
She added that getting sick is no longer an option: "A doctor's visit, paying for an IV, injections, or medicines can ruin you financially."
In Tehran, 50-year-old Sara, who has asthma, is struggling to find her generic inhaler on the shelves. The price has jumped from $5 to $15. "Even though it's a domestic brand, it's very hard to track down," she said, worrying that worsening conditions will spark more protests. "I'm really scared of the harm the state might cause people because of those protests."
They both asked not to be fully identified for fear of retaliation from the Iranian authorities.
Iran's government has stepped up its scare tactics. According to the United Nations, executions have surged over the last six months, with at least 56 people executed on national security charges since mid-March — including 27 linked to protests earlier this year.
The U.S.-based group Human Rights Activists News Agency, which tracks rights abuses in Iran, estimates that more than 7,000 people were killed and tens of thousands arrested during violent crackdowns on mass protests at the start of the year.
Vatanka says that street protests alone won't be enough to bring change against a regime willing to use lethal force. "You're dealing with an animal that is willing to kill you," he said. "You need a political agenda. You need to start peeling off members of the regime, including the security forces. You need to look for ways to engineer high-profile defections."
Hadeel Al-Shalchi reported from Istanbul; Greg Myre reported from Washington, D.C.
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