The Iranian Coup D’état
OAN Commentary by: Richard Pollock
Monday, April 20, 2026
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have achieved something resembling a coup d’état against the civilian Iranian leadership, brashly refuting the country’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, that the Strait of Hormuz was open to all shipping.
The Revolutionary Guards accomplished as much by repudiating both leaders with their own announcement that the strait was once again closed commercial traffic.
IRGC Commander Major General Ahmed Vahidi and his inner circle now appear to be leading the charge for the revolutionary guards, according to the neo-conservative Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
In a series of fast-breaking events, Vahidi and others have reimposed the blockade, enforcing it with missile attacks on two Indian ships in the Straits of Hormuz.
The new announcement to reimpose the blockade was designed to publicly sideline, humiliate and overrule Pezeshkian and Araghchi and other “civilian” leaders tied to the theocratic regime, according to ISW.
The White House also said earlier this week that negotiators were going to Islamabad, Pakistan, for a second round of talks. Both top Iranian leaders were to lead their delegation.
Then, the IRNA News Agency, the country’s state media, reported that the Iranians rejected another round of talks, again repudiating these leaders. “Iran rejected taking part in the second round of talks with the United States,” the agency announced.
The ISW notes, “The IRGC’s actions are likely intended to be an internal demonstration of power designed to exhibit the IRGC’s control within the regime, and in particular, its control over Iran’s negotiating policy.”
Vahidi and his allies within the military wing of Iran “have likely secured at least temporary control over not only Iran’s military response, in this conflict, but Iran’s overall negotiating position and approach within the last 48 hours,” according to an April 18 assessment by ISW.
Late on Sunday, President Trump also announced on his TruthSocial feed that U.S. forces had fired upon an Iranian-flagged vessel called the Touska which tried to run the American blockade. The President on his site reported that U.S. Marines have taken custody of the ship.
J. Michael Waller, a senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy, told me that without an active Supreme Leader, Iran really is at the mercy of the Revolutionary Guards.
Iran’s supposed new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen since his supposed installation after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed at the outset of the war on February 28th. Mojtaba is believed to be either dead or so incapacitated that he cannot be seen in public.
“Without a Supreme Leader, Iran has no government,” Waller told me. “The IRGC controls most of the instruments of finance and all of the surviving instruments of power apart from the weak army. The officials doing the negotiating with the United States have no power to make good on anything they pledge to do. They have no power over the IRGC or anything the IRGC does.”
He said if negotiations were to proceed, which now appear to be uncertain, it would only constitute “political theater” on the part of the White House.
“The only reason for the U.S. to ‘negotiate’ is to attach a fig leaf of diplomacy for the squeamish and win a few propaganda points, to drive wedges further into what’s left of the Iranian regime, to collect intelligence on future targets, and to buy some time to give our men and machines some rest and replenishment,” he told me.
Dr. Stephen Bryen has reached a similar conclusion.
A fellow Substack colleague, Bryen is a leading expert in security strategy and has held senior positions in the Department of Defense (now Department of War). He also is the President of a large multinational defense and technology company.
“It seems obvious that the IRGC was never going to surrender, including making ‘peace deals’ with Trump,” he told me.
“Now the challenge for the President is whether US forces can obliterate the IRGC, and if so, how? Anything more limited than that will result in Iran remaining under the control of the IRGC and the nuclear program will move forward, probably with help from Iran’s allies, China, Russia and North Korea. So, too, will the repression of the Iranian people, with all the worst kinds of terrorist brutality.”
Meanwhile, a new U.S. military buildup in the Middle East appears underway. The U.S. Navy has moved the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford into the Red Sea.
Flights of additional American aircraft also have been reported pouring into the region as well.
The New York Post further reported that Pentagon officials are weighing plans to board and seize Tehran-linked oil tankers worldwide.
Trump is an excellent dealmaker. He has continued to surprise his opponents throughout the war. Stay tuned. There will probably be more twists and turns in the Middle East.
(Views expressed by guest commentators may not reflect the views of OAN or its affiliates.)
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