The head of U.S. Central Command said Monday that the American military campaign against Iran is “ahead or on plan,” as the IDF launched a new wave of strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure.
U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, in an interview with the Farsi-language outlet Iran International, said the joint U.S. campaign alongside Israel is progressing as expected, including efforts to degrade Iran’s missile and drone production capabilities.
“We’re also going after the manufacturing,” Cooper said. “So it’s not just about the threat today. We’re eliminating the threat of the future.”
The IDF said it carried out “a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting Iranian terror regime infrastructure” early Monday. Iranian media reported airstrikes in Tehran but did not specify the sites targeted.
The developments come as tensions escalate following a warning from Tehran that it could target U.S. and regional energy and infrastructure sites if Washington follows through on President Donald Trump’s threat to strike Iran’s power plants.
Trump issued the warning over the weekend, saying the United States would “obliterate” Iran’s power infrastructure if Tehran does not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping route. His self-imposed 48-hour deadline is set to expire late Tuesday.
Iranian media outlets, including the semiofficial Fars news agency, published a list of energy and water facilities across the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah nuclear power plant, in what appeared to be an indirect threat. The list also included desalination plants critical to drinking water supplies in Gulf countries.
Cooper said Iran’s recent actions suggest mounting pressure on its leadership, accusing Tehran of increasingly targeting civilian sites.
“They’re operating in a sign of desperation,” he said, adding that Iran has carried out more than 300 attacks on civilian targets in recent weeks.
He also pointed to a decline in the scale of Iranian attacks since the start of the war.
“At the beginning of the conflict, you saw large volumes in the dozens of drones and missiles,” Cooper said. “You no longer see that. It’s all one or two at a time.”
Despite calls by the United States and Israel for Iranians to rise up against their government, Cooper said now is not the time for civilians to take to the streets.
“They’re launching missiles and drones from populated areas and you need to stay inside for right now,” he said, adding that a signal would come later.