Introduction

This Iranian regime's nuclear weapons program has been abundantly documented in the Open Source literature for decades. But in response to questions about why Israel and the United States (U.S.) decided in June 2025 that they could wait no longer to, at a minimum, severely set back Iran's accelerating progress towards achieving a deliverable nuclear weapon, here is an overview of that progress whose pace towards completion triggered Israel's 'Operation Rising Lion' and the U.S.'s 'Operation Midnight Hammer' in June 2025 and then 'Operation Roaring Lion' and 'Operation Epic Fury' in 2026.

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In a April 17, 2026 "Beyond the Ideological" Substack post, "The IRGC's Eschatological Gamble and the Arab World's Verdict," Zineb Riboua explains some important realities about how the Iranian regime's leadership – clerical and Revolutionary Guards – or what's left of them think about the world and their role in it.

As U.S. negotiators head back to talks in Islamabad, Pakistan to engage yet again with their Iranian counterparts in what are likely the waning hours of a ceasefire agreement, it's critical they understand that those sitting across the table (or the hallway?) from them don't think as we do.

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Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish Muslim imam scholar who headed the Gulen Movement for decades, is no longer with us, having passed away at the age of 83 in October 2024 – but his extensive network of Islamic charter schools remains and looks to be expanding across the United States (U.S.).

Gulen was born in April 1941 in Turkey and rose to prominence as an imam and teacher in the jihadist Sufi neo-Ottoman tradition, closely aligned with the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. Gulen taught from the perspective of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, deriving much of that perspective from the teachings of another Sunni Muslim scholar, Said Nursi.

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Mostly unnoticed in the recent flurry of world events, from the lightning fast seizure and extradition of Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro, by the United States (U.S.) in a 2-3 January 2026 overnight raid to the ongoing U.S. and Israeli takedown of the Iranian regime, was an important meeting in Istanbul, Turkey of leadership figures, branches, and networks associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Mostly unnoticed in the recent flurry of world events, from the people's uprising in the streets of Iran to the lightning fast seizure and extradition of Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas Maduro, by the United States (U.S.) in a 2-3 January 2026 overnight raid, was an important meeting in Istanbul, Turkey of leadership figures, branches, and networks associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of these representatives came from Brotherhood groups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, but others also represented Brotherhood chapters based in Europe.

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