Analysis: The US is urging an end to direct Israel-Iran fire. Experts say it's too soon to tell

 After Israel’s attack on Iran Saturday, US officials were quick to caution both countries against perpetuating the cycle of violence, but analysts say lasting de-escalation is not a foregone conclusion.

Iran appeared to have downplayed the Israeli strike, Iranian experts said. State media broadcast images showing calm on the streets of Tehran, with traffic moving and people going about their daily business.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, DC, said Iran’s downplayed response may be “more reflective of their desire to de-escalate than a true assessment of the damage Israel inflicted on Iran,” like Israel’s attempts to hide damage caused by Iran’s October 1 attack.

“The ball is now in the Iranian leadership’s court,” said Danny Citrinowicz, a research fellow with the Iran Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and a retired Israel Defense Intelligence officer who specialized in Iran.

However, “Iran will not be deterred from escalating in the future if it so sees fit, neither would Israel,” H.A. Hellyer, scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London, told CNN’s Paula Newton, adding that deterrence is often used as an excuse by the attacking state, but only leads to more regional instability.

“It doesn’t de-escalate through escalation,” he said, “which is the most incredible thing I’ve heard.”