The US and Israel continue to attack Iran following the death of its supreme leader. At the same time, Iran is firing its own missiles at areas around the Gulf States and parts of the Middle East in retaliation.
With both sides vowing to continue, people are wondering whether a wider regional conflict is possible and what may come next for Iran since the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Saturday’s protests.
“If you don’t put the boots on the ground, who does (US President) Donald Trump think the Iranian Revolutionary Guard will give up its weapons,” asked Jon Allen, senior director at the Bill Graham Center for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. “Regime change? Up in the air.”
On Sunday, Trump called on the Revolutionary Guard and military police to lay down their weapons or face death.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a pre-recorded message that the new leadership council has begun its work. The country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said a new leader would be chosen “in a day or two.”
With its leader gone, experts say, the regime will aim to project a sense of “stability and continuity,” but behind the scenes there may be instability.
“(The regime) will do everything possible to retaliate to the extent that it can, to do two things,” said Ross Harrison, senior director at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC “One is to show that the regime can inflict damage on its enemies, and number two, to show that the region is still in control.
“It is really a fight for the survival of the state and to do as much damage as possible so that the state can change the statistics of its opponents.”
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He told Global News that there will be “more of the same” in the coming days, and that Iran will likely speed up its attack on Israel, hoping to cause more damage to the missiles that make it defend that country’s “Iron Dome.” He added that most attacks would be against US bases and assets in the region, as well as Israel.
Protesters in the country, however, remained defiant as many celebrated Khamenei’s death on Saturday.
The end of the regime is difficult to determine, but Burcu Ozcelik with the Royal United Services Institute said there is at least one goal.
“The goal is to try to create conditions on the ground inside Iran where another form of government can emerge at least during the transition period until Iran reaches a certain level of stability.”
The US and Israel have threatened to slow down their efforts, with Israel saying on Sunday there would be a “non-stop train” of strikes against Iranian military targets and leadership.
Trump also said that the heavy bombing will continue “uninterrupted for a week or, as long as necessary.”
Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, told Global News that the purpose of the operation was to remove “existing threats” from Iran. But he added that aid could be given to the Iranian people to help with regime change.
“I think we can talk on pro-Iranian lines in ways, perhaps, to create regime change,” he said. “For the Iranian people, and this is the message that was clearly stated by Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu the other day, that we want to see a peaceful Iran living together with the rest of the region.”
The US-Israeli operation is something to watch, said Nejar Mojtahedi, an Iranian-Canadian journalist. He said he expects the surgery to be done in stages.
“Number one, it brings down the leadership of the state,” he told Global News. “Number two is to reduce the power of the federal military so they can’t retaliate as much as they would like.”
Mojtahedi said that the third stage will see efforts to destroy Iran’s economy, while the fourth stage will be to allow the Iranian people to take over the country.
In his first announcement about the US-Israel campaign, Trump called on the Iranian people to rise up and “take over” their government.
He repeated that hit on Sunday on Truth Social.
“I ask all patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment to be brave, to be brave, to be brave, and to take back your country,” Trump said. “America is with you. I made a promise to you, and I kept that promise. The rest will be up to you, but we will be here to help you.”
Trump did not elaborate on how the US would help.
–with files from Global News’ Jeff Semple, Jen Palma and Jazan Grewal-Pabla
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
