JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

The second week of the Israel-Iran war began with a fresh round of Israeli airstrikes on missile sites and a nuclear facility in Iran and Iranian counterstrike sending missiles and drones into residential areas of Israel.

As B2 bombers are reportedly being repositioned.

There's a new warning to the United States.

Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would attack U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if President Trump joins Israel's military campaign.

And after his talks with European officials were inconclusive, Iran's foreign minister said there would be no negotiations with the United States as long as Israeli attacks continue.

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Iran: We have come unfortunately, to the conclusion that the United States has been in this aggression from the beginning.

No, they deny, they keep saying that they are not involving, but we have many indications that they have been involved from day one.

JOHN YANG: As Israel broadens its targets in Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says regime change is not an explicit goal, but could be a result.

Narges Bajoghli is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Narges, Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to be saying that the Israeli attacks have given an opportunity for Iranians who oppose the regime to rise up.

How likely is that?

NARGES BAJOGHLI, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies: That, at least at the moment, seems to be quite unlikely, mostly because first of all, this is a foreign invasion that was an unprovoked attack in a time when Iran was in the midst of negotiations with the United States.

So from the citizenry, even those who are angry at the Islamic Republic, of which there are many, but to respond by an uprising from a foreign invasion where bombs are landing and residential areas all across Tehran and other cities, that seems to be a tall order to want in this moment.

And it's not taking place, as far as we can tell.

Instead, what's happening is a rallying around the flag effect.

JOHN YANG: You had a recent essay in Time magazine, and you wrote that the Iranian state is structured for survival.

Explain that.

NARGES BAJOGHLI: Yes.

So the Islamic Republic came about through a revolution, and right on the heels of the revolution, Iraq invades Iran in 1980, and with the full backing of the west at that point, Iran learned in its infancy that to win these kinds of wars of assault onto the homeland is through perseverance and through doing a war of attrition.

And so in the aftermath of that, the Islamic Republic built institutions in order to ensure Iran's sovereignty against those who, you know, kind of see.

I do not see eye to eye with it.

JOHN YANG: There was also a report today that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has named successors not only to the military leaders who may be killed, but also candidates to succeed himself if he's killed.

The same essay, you wrote that the.

The deaths of influential leaders would renew the system.

Explain that.

NARGES BAJOGHLI: Yes.

Well, first of all, Iran has witnessed Israel's assassinations of leaders of Hezbollah, of the Syrian army, all across the region, and of its own military apparatus.

And so it has contingency plans for the various different leaders who might be killed.

But more importantly than all of that is that this is a country that has had institutions for many, many generations.

Iran is not Syria.

Iran is not Iraq.

It has institutions that span generations that will withstand sort of aerial bombardments of this kind.

JOHN YANG: President Trump says he's put off a decision about whether to join the military campaign for two weeks, seemingly to give diplomacy a chance.

What are the chances that Iran would start negotiation, restart negotiations under the current conditions, much less give up their nuclear program?

NARGES BAJOGHLI: Well, Iran has learned again from things that have happened in the region.

Saddam Hussein gave up his weapons, he was invaded.

Gaddafi gave up his we, he was invaded, he was overthrown.

So in that instance, Iran in this situation is not going to denuclearize and give up all of its enrichment, nor demilitarize.

It's going to now want to maintain military deterrence with Israel in the battlefield.

And then if the United States ends up entering the game, it shifts everything and sort of magnifies what we're all seeing today.

JOHN YANG: What would be the effects, both immediate and long term, if the United States were to join this military campaign?

NARGES BAJOGHLI: So, first of all, I think it's important to note that Iran is four and a half times the size of Germany.

So it is a massive country.

It will make the invasion of Iraq look like a walk in the park in many ways.

It has a population of 92 million, which also means that we have to think about not only the how big the country is, but also then the type of human capital that it has at its disposal, again, many of which will fight for the country.

So the other point that I think is very important is that Iran is a state that has built militias throughout the region to bleed and sort of create chaos for American soldiers in Iraq.

That's one of the reasons that Iraq was such a difficult war for the Americans was because of the role that the Iranian militias played.

The same thing in Syria.

Yes, these forces have been weakened, but Iran retains the capability to be able to foment them again.

JOHN YANG: Narges Bajoghli, thank you very much.

NARGES BAJOGHLI: Thank you.