Intelligence agencies will be trying to determine the scope of the Israeli strike’s damage, and whether there are casualties or how many could increase pressure on Iran to respond, former CIA Director John Brennan said.

“‘A lot will depend on how much damage was done inside of Iran,” Brennan, who headed the agency from 2013 to January 2017, said on MSNBC.

Isfahan, a city in central Iran, is a “target rich environment,” with an airbase, a missile production facility and other areas that could be of interest, Brennan said. The city was also attacked before, when a military facility was struck in 2023, Iran said at the time.

“What CIA is doing right now is trying to determine exactly what that damage is, and trying to then see how the Iranians are going to react,” Brennan said.

“And we may know whether or not we’re going to get into this very dangerous escalatory spiral by some of the initial statements that are going to be coming out of Tehran — whether or not they’re going to say, ‘this was ineffective,’ whether the Iranian defense forces were able to repel some of these strikes, even if they didn’t,” he said.

If Iran claims there are a large number of civilian casualties, that could stoke angry reactions and precede Iranian strike in response, Brennan said.

“I think if there is a lot of blood that was shed in these strikes, the Iranians are going to really feel compelled to be able to respond somehow to Israel,” he said.