U.S.-Israeli Strikes on Iran Expected to Continue for Weeks as Tehran Weighs Response

Retired U.S. Navy Captain Brent Sadler, now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, stated Sunday that the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran required extensive coordination and warned that days, if not weeks, of operations could still lie ahead as Tehran weighs its response.

President Donald Trump has indicated the strikes would continue through the week, and Iran’s armed forces have vowed to respond with force.

Sadler described Iran’s warning as something that should be taken seriously despite the regime facing setbacks. “The regime, though decapitated right now, still does have a lot of lethal weapons at its disposal—the ballistic missiles most notably,” he said.

He added that military forces against Iran are performing “superbly under very pressurized conditions.” “Granted, there was a lot of planning that had to be done on this, but then again, there are a lot of dynamics on the field. You have Iranian people protesting who we do not want to harm and want to actually provide an opening for so they can take their country back,” Sadler explained.

Fred Fleitz, a former National Security Council chief of staff and CIA analyst, pointed to extensive U.S. and Israeli intelligence penetration inside Iran following reports that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had emerged from a bunker to meet with top officials before the strike. “Who thought there’d be a surprise attack during the day?” Fleitz said. “I think the Iranian government did not think that the U.S. or Israel would attack, except at night.”

He suggested this may have been the reasoning behind Khamenei’s belief that it was safe to hold a meeting with “a significant number of leaders at his presidential palace during the day.” Fleitz added: “It is just extraordinary how Iran is totally infiltrated by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.” He also noted U.S. intelligence, including the CIA, had been monitoring Khamenei for some time and “saw an opportunity, and they took it.”

As Iran launches counterstrikes across the Middle East—including reported missile attacks targeting areas such as Dubai—Sadler characterized the response as disorganized. “It appears [to be] acts of desperation,” he said. “It’s actually very counterproductive to what the regime’s most likely next step would have been, and that is to try to rally opposition to the United States and Israel in their attack on Iran.”

Sadler added that widespread dissatisfaction inside Iran has made foreign intelligence infiltration easier. “Because there’s so much popular support among Iranian people, getting that type of infiltration with Mossad, CIA, and others is easier because you have so many who are frustrated and fed up with this regime teetering on its last days,” he said.

Fleitz noted questions remain about who could assume power if Khamenei was killed and whether the regime would fracture or escalate its crackdown. He also observed that during past unrest, Iran has relied on outside forces: “We don’t really know how hard the Iranian government is going to fight,” Fleitz said. “I think they’re going to fight hard. But this protest movement may be too large for it to put down.”