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.
Preceding the Istanbul meeting itself, on New Year’s Day, 1 January 2026, large pro-HAMAS rallies were held in Istanbul in support of populations in Gaza and to protest Israel’s post-October 7, 2023 operations against HAMAS, Gaza’s Brotherhood off-shoot there. Tens of thousands converged at Istanbul’s Galata Bridge. The rallies reportedly were attended by Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son, Bilal. The Erdogan regime has long been supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood and permissively allows HAMAS terror cells that attempt to launch attacks in Judea and Samaria to operate from its territory.
On 3 January 2026, delegations from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen, in addition to representatives from Turkey’s own Istanbul Front and the Brotherhood’s international office in London, met in a secretive closed-door session in Istanbul. The Muslim Brotherhood is a designated terrorist group in a number of these participating countries and others, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Additionally, on 24 November 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14362 to begin the process of officially designating certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). A White House Fact Sheet was issued the same day to explain the process, which directs Secretary of State, Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, in consultation with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, to submit a report within 45 days.
In the face of such international pressure, exclusion, and a perceived loss of influence and presence across the region, but especially in areas of conflict like Gaza, the Istanbul meeting was intended to re-focus efforts and respective roles for the Brotherhood across the MENA region. Topics of discussion at the Istanbul meeting reportedly included how the Muslim Brotherhood should re-establish its presence and manage specific current conflict situations in Sudan and Yemen.
Escalating conflict in Yemen has been marked especially in the southern Hadramout region by 2-3 January 2026 Saudi airstrikes targeted at the UAE-backed Southern Transition Council (STC). The STC, formed in 2017, seeks to establish a breakaway Yemen “State of South Arabia”, while Saudi Arabia continues to back the internationally-recognized government of the Republic of Yemen. Mohammed Saleh Batees, the acting head of the STC’s Executive Authority in Hadramout, has issued warning statements about the possible returning influence of Al-Qa’eda, the Brotherhood, and the Iran-backed Houthis, which seized control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014. To resolve the dispute between rival Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which oppose the Houthis, a delegation led by STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi, is due to travel in coming days to Saudi Arabia at Saudi invitation.
Similarly, in Sudan, the UAE reportedly has provided military support to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is engaged in conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has long supported the Sudanese Khartoum government in a relationship that goes back to the 1950s. As in Yemen, the widening split between the two is playing out across the region, as Saudi Arabia seeks to “maintain stability in the volatile region” – including a unified state for Yemen – while the UAE appears to be “pursuing access to resources and strategic geography” near the strategic Horn of Africa and Red Sea, according to reporting from the Africa Defense Forum. It’s important to note, however, that Saudi policy in Yemen does not imply any kind of Saudi shift towards the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned as a terrorist organization in the Kingdom.
In this wider regional scenario, the Istanbul meeting would seem to be seeking opportunistic advantage for Muslim Brotherhood territorial meddling arising out of current difficulties in the Gulf relationship between the Emiratis and Saudis. That a STC delegation (although it seems without Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council), did travel for talks to Saudi Arabia on 7 January, 2026, offers hope that Saudi-Emirati rivalry might find some solution, rather than providing a dangerous and unnecessary opening for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Clare M. Lopez is the Founder/President of Lopez Liberty LLC and blogs at “In Defense of Liberty” at Newsmax. This article has been cross-posted with the author’s permission from The United West.
somehistory says
Was n awad of the mb chapter labeled cair in attendance?
A meeting of the muzzie mob. Like what happened years ago with a meeting of mobsters in the U.S., mb mobsters should be cancelled….as in….
somehistory says
OT From The Daily Signal
“BREAKING: Ringleader of Anti-ICE Church Invasion Arrested
Tyler O’Neil”
“Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that law enforcement had arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, a leader of the agitators who invaded a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday.
“Minutes ago at my direction [Homeland Security Investigations] and [FBI] agents executed an arrest in Minnesota,” Bondi posted on X Thursday morning.
“So far, we have arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” she added. “We will share more updates as they become available.”
somehistory says
““Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” the attorney general wrote.
Shortly afterward, Bondi posted that Chauntyll Louisa Allen had also been arrested. “More to come,” she added.
Allen is a member of the St. Paul school board and leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, as TMZ reported in an interview with her. She is also running for a city council seat, according to her school board candidacy website.
Videos of the incident show the pastor and others repeatedly asking the agitators to leave, and the agitators chanting, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!”
This is not peaceful protest. This is an invasion of a sacred space. Anti-ICE agitators disrupted Cities Church in the middle of service.
Warning: the agitators on the Left are serious. The man who posted this video bragged about doing this—comparing it to Jesus flipping over… pic.twitter.com/BeeIdubpwM
— Tyler O’Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) January 19, 2026”
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I guess I’ll wait for 2028, and hope that the next POTUS recognizes Turkey as an enemy, and reverses all of Trump’s policies on that country, in particular. Oh, and Qatar as well
Billy says
President Trump and our Western Leaders have been compromised by Muslim oil money and investments from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, etc., and our Western Leaders have done little to stop the Islamization of the West. Islam and its Muslims are a Terrorist-Criminal-Gang Organization against all Non-Muslims as taught in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 9:5, 29, 111; 49:15, etc.). As a result of Muslim migration, Western women, children, and citizens are being attacked, raped, and murdered by Muslims every day in the West.
Allah’s Islam, a CRIMINAL-TERRORIST-GANG ENTERPRISE and a MURDEROUS-DEMONIC CULT OF BELIEVERS, Terrorist Muslim Soldiers for satanic Allah, continually fund, promote, and practice ideological subversion, propaganda, bigotry, discrimination, deceit, industrial-scale slavery, human trafficking, intimidation, supremacy, segregation, hatred, incitement to violence, criminality, genocide, victimhood, censorship, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law, Sharia, and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 5:14,35; 8:60; 9:41, 88, etc.). Islam and its Muslims, enemies of Non-Muslims, are a Muslim Terrorist Organization(MTO).
Allah describes Muslim women in Jenna, Allah’s Paradise, as whores of Allah in Qur’an 56:37. Also, Deceitful Allah stirs hatred against Christians until the resurrection day when Qur’an 5:14 instructs, “And some of those who say, ‘Surely we are Nasara (Christians),’ we took their covenant. So they have forgotten a part of what they were reminded of, so we have stirred up ENMITY and HATRED among them until the resurrection day. And Allah will inform them of what they were doing.” See also Qur’an 2:225; 60:4; 8:55.
As taught by Allah, Muslims are supremacist terrorists for Allah with their MONEY and with their LIVES while undermining a society from within using the man-made book of lies and deceit, the Qur’an. Allah in Qur’an 49:15 states, “Surely the believers[Muslims] are only those who believed in Allah and his messenger. They do not doubt, and they performed jihad with their MONEY and their LIVES for the sake of Allah. Those are the truthful.” As evidenced by continuous Muslim attacks, Allah in Qur’an 4:101 says, “…Surely the infidels(Non-Muslims) were your clear enemies.”
ALLAH’S MUSLIMS are a greater TERROR than diabolical Allah. Allah in Qur’an 59:13 says, “You[Muslims] are a greater terror in their chests than Allah. This is because they[Jews & Christians] are people who do not understand.” Islam must be banned as illegal, and we have the legal right to defend ourselves from Muslim violence. As a result, Non-Muslims are marked for death by Islam and its Muslims. Allah in Qur’an 9:29 commands, “Engage in war with those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day. Nor forbid what Allah and his messenger forbid, nor believe in the religion of the truth among those who have given the book until they pay the jizyah out of hand and they are subdued.”
Again, Islam is a civilization-destroying, totalitarian, and supremacist system of lies and deceit because Allah, the best deceiver, is the actual source of Muslim deceit as taught in Islam’s Qur’an. Muslims under Islam’s system of deceit are more easily controlled because there is no foundation for truth in Islam. Allah in Qur’an 3:54 says, “And they deceived, and Allah deceived. And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 8:30 says, “…And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 13:42 says, “And indeed, those before them deceived, so to Allah all the deception…”
GE says
I can’t believe anybody would be surprised at this hosting MB. He’s been funneling jihadis from Turkey into Syria for ages.
I used to think the Europeans would be the ones to start the next World War, after #s 1 and 2. Now I think it may start in the Middle East or the Caucuses.
If God exists, the Qatari plane will fall into the sea with Trump on it. says
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has obtained shocking information and video footage showing executions and blatant violations by members of transitional government forces against Kurdish detainees.
According to SO HR sources, several detainees were executed, while others endured verbal abuse and acts based on racist hatred, as they were humiliated and forced to imitate animals sounds.
This ill-treatment amounts to psychological torture, while such violations echo the sectarian-based violations committed previously against detainees of the Alawite community in Syria’s coastal region and Druze detainees in Al-Suwaidaa.
This reflects a serious pattern of sectarian and ethnic-based violations.
The Sy ri an O bse rvatory warns against the repercussions of the continued sectarian and ethnic-based violations which undermine the social cohesion in Syria.
S O H R also calls for starting urgent and independent investigations into those heinous crimes, holding the perpetrators accountable, respecting human rights and ensuring the protection of detainees, regardless their national or religious backgrounds.
Martinenko says
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/19/middleeast/iranian-kurds-see-victory-edging-closer-intl
Trump has betrayed the Kurds.
I hope you realize that now the only ally of the good option in Iran is Edi Rama.
https://www.dw.com/sr/uloga-mud%C5%BEahedina-iz-albanije-u-protestima-u-iranu/a-75584837?utm_source=kurir&utm_medium=web_article&utm_campaign=adria_internal
Will Trump betray Rama too?
OLD GUY says
Diplomacy with Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the other muslim countries is for the cameras as far as they are concerned. They all put on this great show of pomp and circumstance and show off their palaces while making business deals to portray a sense of civility while planning and funding the takeover of all none muslim/islamic countries. turkey for sure should be removed from NATO.