Final Update 30 March 2015: At least I hope this will be the final update to this SITREP. However, it may be the most important. It has been my assessment for many years that Iran has at least one, possibly more, working nuclear weapons. I also have always maintained that North Korean nuclear tests have been de facto Iranian nuclear tests.
Now comes information posted today from a respected military intelligence report which suggests exactly that, but with a twist. De facto Iranian nuclear tests have occurred in North Korea, and so is their assembly and storage site located in North Korea. According to the mil intel report two and a half years ago (October 2012) Iran began stationing IRGC troops and technicians at a base in North Korea and very near the Chinese border. Their dual purpose is to work on missiles and nuclear weapons assembly. This deployment followed by one month the signing of a technical cooperation pact between the DPRK and Iran.
With the reported key detail of the framework agreement (scheduled to be announced tomorrow) between the P5+1 and Iran holding that there is the "safeguard" of a one-year warning to a breakaway effort by Iran to produce a nuclear weapon by IAEA monitoring of Iran's centrifuges in Iran, what good does that do if Iran's military nuclear effort is based in North Korea, and in nuclear terms, a "stone's throw" from the Chinese border?
Not only is the alleged P5+1-Iran agreement worse than anyone, including Bibi Netanyahu, believed just 4 weeks ago, but it's essentially a mega-farce in continuing parade of mega-farces. Warm and fuzzies for everyone!
21 March 2015: Are there any indications within Bible prophecy of a nuclear-armed Iran? If you find one please let me know immediately. Until that time, and excepting only Ezekiel 38/39, the only 'last days' prophecy there is regarding Iran is the subject of this and numerous other posts to Eschatology Today: Jeremiah 49:34-39. The prophecy is about a very violent preemptive military neutering of Iran, and a conflict in which Iran's enemies end up subduing the regime to its complete destruction. And it all begins in that part of modern-day Iran where its nuclear infrastructure in concentrated. Historically, biblical Elam had ceased to exist as a nation over five hundred years prior to Jeremiah receiving this prophecy from God circa 600 BC. This leave no doubt that Jeremiah's prophecy is one whose fulfillment was appointed for these 'last days.'
It should therefore come as no surprise to any student of Bible prophecy that the much heralded P5+1 (EU/E3+3) nuclear negotiations with Iran are on the verge of collapse just days prior to the March 31 deadline. The collapse is due as much to the Iranian regime's rejection of the conditions being imposed by the P5+1 as it is due to the European partners rejection of major aspects of the "deal" negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The long and the short of these negotiations are that the Iranian regime has played both Obama and Kerry as fools, and which is something the European partners want no part of such absurdity as they know all too well the end result of baseless negotiations with a totalitarian dictatorship bent on imposing their ideology upon the rest of the world.
So, what we're left with is our faith in the prophetic word of God and knowing that its fulfillment is near. Very near indeed.
11 March 2015: Did anyone notice how Iran responded by PM Netanyahu's speech to the U.S. Congress? I am absolutely certain some of you did notice. For those that did not, and for those who don't fully grasp the significance of the Iranian response, this update is for you!
Exactly one week after PM Netanyahu's speech the Iranian Assembly of Experts elected the notorious Hojjatieh Twelver Ayatollah Mohammed-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi. Ayatollah Yazdi is the Iranian cleric who brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in Iran. Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi managed to fall off, or was deliberately and politically knocked off of the top echelon of the clerical elite in Iran during 2013. A ruse during nuclear negotiations, no doubt. He was then summarily dismissed by most intelligence agencies as having little or no influence in any future decision to replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Here is an example of that type of intelligence dismissal of Ayatollah Yazdi that was published by Israel's Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center on July 8, 2013:
Now comes information posted today from a respected military intelligence report which suggests exactly that, but with a twist. De facto Iranian nuclear tests have occurred in North Korea, and so is their assembly and storage site located in North Korea. According to the mil intel report two and a half years ago (October 2012) Iran began stationing IRGC troops and technicians at a base in North Korea and very near the Chinese border. Their dual purpose is to work on missiles and nuclear weapons assembly. This deployment followed by one month the signing of a technical cooperation pact between the DPRK and Iran.
With the reported key detail of the framework agreement (scheduled to be announced tomorrow) between the P5+1 and Iran holding that there is the "safeguard" of a one-year warning to a breakaway effort by Iran to produce a nuclear weapon by IAEA monitoring of Iran's centrifuges in Iran, what good does that do if Iran's military nuclear effort is based in North Korea, and in nuclear terms, a "stone's throw" from the Chinese border?
Not only is the alleged P5+1-Iran agreement worse than anyone, including Bibi Netanyahu, believed just 4 weeks ago, but it's essentially a mega-farce in continuing parade of mega-farces. Warm and fuzzies for everyone!
21 March 2015: Are there any indications within Bible prophecy of a nuclear-armed Iran? If you find one please let me know immediately. Until that time, and excepting only Ezekiel 38/39, the only 'last days' prophecy there is regarding Iran is the subject of this and numerous other posts to Eschatology Today: Jeremiah 49:34-39. The prophecy is about a very violent preemptive military neutering of Iran, and a conflict in which Iran's enemies end up subduing the regime to its complete destruction. And it all begins in that part of modern-day Iran where its nuclear infrastructure in concentrated. Historically, biblical Elam had ceased to exist as a nation over five hundred years prior to Jeremiah receiving this prophecy from God circa 600 BC. This leave no doubt that Jeremiah's prophecy is one whose fulfillment was appointed for these 'last days.'
It should therefore come as no surprise to any student of Bible prophecy that the much heralded P5+1 (EU/E3+3) nuclear negotiations with Iran are on the verge of collapse just days prior to the March 31 deadline. The collapse is due as much to the Iranian regime's rejection of the conditions being imposed by the P5+1 as it is due to the European partners rejection of major aspects of the "deal" negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The long and the short of these negotiations are that the Iranian regime has played both Obama and Kerry as fools, and which is something the European partners want no part of such absurdity as they know all too well the end result of baseless negotiations with a totalitarian dictatorship bent on imposing their ideology upon the rest of the world.
So, what we're left with is our faith in the prophetic word of God and knowing that its fulfillment is near. Very near indeed.
11 March 2015: Did anyone notice how Iran responded by PM Netanyahu's speech to the U.S. Congress? I am absolutely certain some of you did notice. For those that did not, and for those who don't fully grasp the significance of the Iranian response, this update is for you!
Exactly one week after PM Netanyahu's speech the Iranian Assembly of Experts elected the notorious Hojjatieh Twelver Ayatollah Mohammed-Taqi Mesbah Yazdi. Ayatollah Yazdi is the Iranian cleric who brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in Iran. Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi managed to fall off, or was deliberately and politically knocked off of the top echelon of the clerical elite in Iran during 2013. A ruse during nuclear negotiations, no doubt. He was then summarily dismissed by most intelligence agencies as having little or no influence in any future decision to replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Here is an example of that type of intelligence dismissal of Ayatollah Yazdi that was published by Israel's Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center on July 8, 2013:
"The erosion of Mesbah Yazdi’s status may be temporary and it is quite implausible that he will lose all of his political and religious influence. It may, however, undermine his ability to play a central, influential role in future political struggles, particularly the succession struggle that will likely emerge after the death of the current Supreme Leader."
The
Israeli's could not possibly have forecast a more erroneous intelligence
assessment, as he was down but by no means out of the picture. Particularly the big picture which will remain in flux until early 2016.
A re-assessment on exactly what is going on within Iran's powerful 86-member Assembly of Experts is in progress. At present it appears as if Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi (80), and Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati have jointly managed to get a majority of votes to elect the similarly named Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi (83) to the leadership position and send the body as a whole on a lurch to the stridently fundamentalist side of Iranian politics. It remains to be seen who may yet become the next Supreme leader of Iran.
A re-assessment on exactly what is going on within Iran's powerful 86-member Assembly of Experts is in progress. At present it appears as if Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi (80), and Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati have jointly managed to get a majority of votes to elect the similarly named Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi (83) to the leadership position and send the body as a whole on a lurch to the stridently fundamentalist side of Iranian politics. It remains to be seen who may yet become the next Supreme leader of Iran.
6 March 2005: As even the main stream media in the Middle East is now acknowledging, the specific content and context of PM Netanyahu's speech to the U.S. Congress has received open and unambiguous approval and support from the Saudi Arabian government, proving what I wrote recently of the military cooperation between them in the ongoing planning for a strike against Iranian nuclear targets is nothing less than a cold hard fact.
So incensed are the Saudi's with Obama's Iranian agenda that one Saudi newspaper columnist said Obama was the worst US President in history; another citing Netanyahu's axiom that when it comes to Iran and the Islamic State, "the enemy of your enemy is your enemy" had particular resonance in the government halls of Riyadh. The Saudi's are keenly aware of Iranian encirclement of their kingdom - from across the waters of the gulf to Yemen in the south where Shi'a Houthi rebels have taken control of the county with Iranian direct support.
5 March 2015: With real-world events having once again fixed our gaze and our diligent study upon the prophecy of Jeremiah (Yirme'Yahu) 49:34-39. Through continuing study the Lord has continued to reveal new insights that I feel I would be remiss as a watchman to omit from mentioning.
Many are fearful to the point of hand-wringing angst that should additional sanctions be applied or Iranian nuclear sites be attacked by outside forces one of the first things Iran would do in response would be to militarily shut down the Strait of Hormuz to the flow of global commerce, especially crude oil.
Here's where reading Jeremiah 49:34-39 causes one to look critically at what the Lord has foretold. Specifically, how could the Islamic Republic follow through on its often repeated threat to close down the Strait of Hormuz given what our Omnipotent God has declared through His prophet?
How does Iran shut down this critical waterway when God has destroyed the crown jewel of Iranian military power? How does the uber braggadocian Iranian regime make good on its threats when God has caused them to be chathath (to be shattered, dismayed, broken) before their enemies? Notice carefully that there is more than one enemy in the context here. Through Jeremiah the Lord has promised "I will send the sword after them, til I have consumed them."
The world which has no regard for and no interest in the prophetic declarations of the God of Israel spends its time worrying, and fretting, and fearing that which ought not be. That kind of activity has no place here. Unlike others who worry needlessly and express fear over things they have no control over, Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit are in an automatic "In God We Trust" mode day in and day out.