The U.S. and Israel proceed to bombard Iran following the death of its supreme leader. At the identical time, Iran is firing its own missiles at surrounding Gulf States and parts of the Middle East in retaliation.
With each side vowing to proceed, persons are questioning whether a wider regional conflict is feasible and what might be next for Iran since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in Saturday’s attacks.
“When you don’t put boots on the bottom, who does (U.S. President) Donald Trump think the Iranian Revolutionary Guard goes handy its weapons to,” wondered Jon Allen, a senior fellow on the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History on the University of Toronto. “Regime change? Up within the air.”
On Sunday, Trump called on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and military police to put down their arms or face death.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a prerecorded message that a brand new leadership council had already begun its work. The country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said a brand new supreme leader can be chosen in “one or two days.”
With its leader gone, experts say, the regime will aim to portray a way of “stability and continuity,” but behind the scenes there’s likely instability.
“(The regime is) going to do its best to retaliate to the degree it will possibly, with a view to do two things,” said Ross Harrison, a senior fellow on the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. “One is to indicate that the regime can inflict damage on its adversaries, and number two, to indicate that the region remains to be on top of things.
“It’s really a fight for survival of the regime and for inflicting as much damage because the regime can with a view to change the calculus of its adversaries.”
Get each day National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
He told Global News there shall be “more of the identical” in the approaching days, and that Iran will likely speed up its attacks on Israel, hoping to cause probably the most damage from missiles that make it through that country’s “Iron Dome” defences. He added that the vast majority of the attacks will likely be against U.S. bases and assets within the region, in addition to Israel.
Protesters within the country, nevertheless, remain defiant with many having celebrated Khamenei’s death on Saturday.
An end to the regime is difficult to find out, but Burcu Ozcelik with the Royal United Services Institute said there’s not less than one possible goal.
“The goal of attempting to create the conditions on the bottom inside Iran whereby an alternate form of presidency might emerge not less than for the transition period until Iran achieves some level of stabilization.”
The U.S. and Israel have indicted there shall be no decelerate of their efforts, with Israel on Sunday saying there can be a “non-stop air train” of strikes against Iranian military and leadership targets.
Trump has also said heavy bombing will proceed “uninterrupted throughout the week or, so long as needed.”
Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, told Global News the goal of the operation was to remove “existential threats” from Iran. But he added help might be provided to Iranians to help in a regime change.
“I believe that we will discuss lines that support the Iranians with means, perhaps, to create a regime change,” he said. “It’s for the Iranian people, and this can also be the message that was very clearly said by Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu the opposite day, that we wish to see a peaceful Iran living side-by-side with the remaining of the region.”
The U.S.-Israel operation is something to observe, said Nejar Mojtahedi, an Iranian-Canadian journalist. She said she expects the operation to unfold in stages.
“Primary, decapitate the leadership of the regime,” she told Global News. “Number two is to degrade the military defence capability of the regime so that they can’t retaliate as strong as they would really like to.”
Mojtahedi said stage three would see an effort to degrade Iran’s economy, and the fourth can be to permit the Iranian people to take over the country.
In his initial announcement concerning the campaign by the U.S. and Israel, Trump called for Iranians to stand up and “take over” their government.
He reiterated that decision on Sunday on Truth Social.
“I call upon all of the radiant patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment to be brave, be daring, be heroic, and take back your country,” Trump said. “America is with you. I made a promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise. The remaining shall be as much as you, but we’ll be there to assist.”
Trump didn’t elaborate on how the U.S. would help.
—with files from Global News’ Jeff Semple, Jen Palma and Jazan Grewal-Pabla
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.