This last weekend has seen some complicated developments in Iran.

First of all, while President Trump was looking to exploit the chaos that was clearly developing between various leaders in Iran, there will be no Iranian representatives showing up to continue negotiations in Pakistan this week. it seems the IRGC is done with the back-and-forth between leaders like Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. A report emerged over the weekend that Iran is essentially now a military junta, as the IRGC has taken control.

Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leader has effectively taken control of Tehran’s military and negotiation team over the weekend, analysts said.

IRGC Commander Maj. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi and members of his inner circle have allegedly taken charge of the Islamic republic, as evident by Iran’s attacks on ships trying to sail through the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran’s refusal to join peace talks with the US this week, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said.

The sudden shift to a hardline stance also shows that more moderate members of Iran’s leadership, including Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi, have been sidelined.

Araghchi had initially agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend after reaching a consensus with the Trump administration, but the IRGC demanded it remain shut in the face of the American blockade on Iranian ports.

Vahidi reportedly received the backing of Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary and an IRGC veteran, to control the strait — further cementing Vahidi’s grip on Iran.

Vahidi and Zolghadr’s alliance goes beyond the military blockade, with the IRGC commander tapping his ally to join the Iranian delegation earlier this month.

Zolghadr was specifically sent to make sure the delegation was following the IRGC’s command and that of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who ascended to replace his father at the pushing of the Islamic Guard.

Vahidi’s alliance has ultimately made him the top decision-maker in Iran apart from Khamenei, who has yet to make a public appearance since he was injured during the initial US-Israeli airstrikes that killed his father and other top officials.

This puts Vahidi and the IRGC above Araghchi and Iranian Parliament leader Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who, despite their anti-American rhetoric, are considered moderates.

The state of affairs undermines Araghchi and Ghalibaf’s negotiations with the US as they lack “leverage or formal executive authority to shape decision-making,” the ISW notes.

So now Vahidi and Zolghadr, with Mojtaba Khamenei as their hand-chosen puppet ayatollah, have taken control. This resets the chessboard, and strips everyone that had been dealing with the United States previously right out of the equation. Iran is no longer a theocracy, but a military dictatorship.

And now that Iran is under IRGC control, it also means that they are not going to honor the commitments made by officials like Araghchi. On Sunday, they decided to test the blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz. According to President Trump, “it did not go well for them.”

The US seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship after “blowing a hole” in its engine room when it tried to break past the Navy blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump revealed Sunday.

The USS Spruance destroyer intercepted Iran’s Touska cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, taking custody of the ship after it refused warnings to stop, according to the president.

“Today, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA, nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our Naval Blockade, and it did not go well for them,” Trump boasted on Truth Social.

“Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel,” the president added. “The TOUSKA is under U.S. Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity. We have full custody of the ship, and are seeing what’s on board!”

CENTCOM confirmed the seizure of the ship.

U.S. Marines depart amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) by helicopter and transit over the Arabian Sea to board and seize M/V Touska. The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 19, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska’s… pic.twitter.com/mFxI5RzYCS

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 20, 2026

That’s sure to get the IRGC’s attention and make them plenty mad. President Trump keeps offering the off-ramps via the peace process, and Iran just refuses to take it. With them now sitting out the talks, and making attempts to break the blockade, I have a feeling that the end of the ceasefire is coming. And yet, if the nuclear material was handed over, the president would likely put an end to all military activity. But as “60 Minutes” pointed out on Sunday evening, getting that nuclear “dust” is kind of a complicated deal.

It’s believed Iran currently has enough HEU (highly enriched uranium) to eventually make 10 atomic bombs. But international inspectors have not been allowed to verify Iran’s stockpile since last June, when the U.S. and Israel struck three nuclear sites.

Over the last seven weeks of war, President Trump has insisted the U.S. will take whatever is left, whether with boots on the ground fighting their way in or striking a deal with the Iranian regime to allow scientists to safely secure the stockpile and bring it back to the United States.

What you may not know — that option has been done before — in a high-stakes mission that could become the blueprint for how to get HEU out of Iran.

“60 Minutes” went on to describe “Project Sapphire” – a highly complex mission that took place in 1994 to remove highly enriched uranium from Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Cecilia Vega (“60 Minutes” reporter): From touchdown to takeoff, Project Sapphire took six weeks to remove more than 1,300 pounds of bomb-grade uranium from Kazakhstan. Would the same mission be possible today in Iran?

Andrew Weber (Project Sapphire point person): In Iran, we couldn’t send a team in to do this unilaterally without great risk. You would need to set up in the middle of the country a secure perimeter. It would probably take thousands of U.S. troops to secure the facility while our experts excavated the HEU that’s located inside deep tunnels at a place called Isfahan.

This is the Isfahan nuclear facility deep in Iran’s desert. Under this mountain, international inspectors say most of Iran’s HEU is stored in scuba tank sized containers. It’s believed those containers are in tunnels so far below ground, America’s bunker busting bombs may not be able to reach them.

Satellite images show in the weeks leading up to this current war, the Iranians blocked the tunnel entrances with dirt. Two weeks ago, images showed roadblocks. Nuclear analysts say it suggests Tehran is concerned about a U.S. or Israeli raid on the facility.

Matthew Bunn (former White House nuclear adviser): It’s not like Iran hasn’t thought about the possibility that we might do this. But U.S. Special Forces have been training for deep underground facilities of one kind or another for a long, long, long time.

U.N. inspectors believe Iran has close to 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched to 60%, nearly ready to be used in a nuclear weapon.

Cecilia Vega: 970 pounds of 60% highly enriched uranium. What can you do with that?

Matthew Bunn: So that is enough material for if you enrich it just a little bit more, for ten to eleven nuclear bombs.

Oh yeah, about that…

I thought that there was no evidence that Iran was producing enriched Uranium to build a bomb? The Obama agreement ensured it, right? https://t.co/rV9QPfwJS5

— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) April 19, 2026

The fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to expire on Wednesday. Dr. Matthew Bunn says any nuclear agreement should not be based on trust, but verification.

Matthew Bunn: Iran has been lying about its nuclear weapons effort for over 20 years now. They have always claimed our program was 100% peaceful, we were never pursuing nuclear weapons. That’s a lie. And then once the international inspectors got in and started finding some things out, the Iranians kept lying to them.

Wow, the Iranians lied? I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you. And with the IRGC taking control, there will be more lies, more intransigence, and probably more bombs dropping. If Iran chooses not to take the off-ramp of peace talks, then I have a feeling that President Trump will wreck the Iranian economy by either seizing Kharg Island, or wrecking its refinery capability. Iran’s economy is in shambles because their currency has collapsed, and if the IRGC can’t pay their soldiers, then things could get very dicey very quickly for Vahidi and Zolghadr. And should the bombing start again, the two of them will have targets on their backs.

Featured image via jorono on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license