President Donald Trump took the U.S. into war with Iran on Saturday, raising the specter that the nation would return to the bloody Middle East entanglements of the early 2000s. U.S. planes dropped bombs on three nuclear sites in Iran,

“If the Middle East is unstable, the world will not be at peace,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday. “If the conflict escalates further, not only will the conflicting parties suffer greater losses, but regional countries will also suffer greatly.”

For years, Israel contained its conflicts with Tehran, Hamas and Hezbollah. The broad assault on Iran highlights a shift in strategy.