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The Iranian Nuclear Red Line
Supported by Russia, Iran challenges Israel and the West fulfilling Bible Prophecy
December 29, 2011 - Audio, 11.50 MIN
(Links at bottom of page to download free viewers.)
Welcome to the Bible in the News with Nick Barnes. The threat, of an Iranian nuclear weapon, together with the regime’s stated desire for “a world without Zionism” and to “wipe Israel off the map”, has worried Israel and the West for many years. But wrangles in the United Nations and irresolute US & Israeli governments, have prevented both effective economic sanctions and decisive military actions.
The Nov 2011 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, demonstrated conclusively (what most commentators have believed for years), that Iran’s nuclear programme is not solely for peaceful, power generating, purposes.
The IAEA investigation exposed seven key facts which demonstrate Iran’s true purpose. They found:
1. the production of “uranium metal from fluoride compounds and its manufacture into components relevant to a nuclear device”
2. “experiments involving the explosive compression of uranium deuteride to produce short bursts of neutrons”
3. he manufacture and testing of high explosive lenses, designed to create a compressive implosion
4. “EBW detonator studies, particularly involving applications necessitating high simultaneity”
5. “multipoint explosion initiation and hemispherical detonation studies involving highly instrumented experiments”
6. “high voltage firing equipment and instrumentation”
All things necessary to create a nuclear device, where the core is rapidly compressed, to initiate a chain, nuclear-fission, reaction, in an underground nuclear test.
And none of which, have any peaceful purpose.
And finally they found…
7. “studies involving the removal of the conventional high explosive payload from the warhead of the Shahab-3 missile and replacing it with a spherical nuclear payload”
Until now, the Obama administration has not only refused to take military action, it has pressed restraint on Israel too. As recently as Dec 2, Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, warned Israel, that a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities "would set back (Iran’s program) by one to two years at best" and seriously damage the world economy.
So, to date, Israel has restricted itself to subversion & sabotage, where Iran has seen
· several, top nuclear and weapons scientists mysteriously assassinated
· centrifuges destroyed by the Stuxnet worm
· and explosions at ballistic missile and uranium enrichment facilities – almost certainly the handiwork of Israel’s security services.
But according to DEBKAfile, US intelligence now believes that Iran has actually begun the process of nuclear warhead assembly. This accounts for the dramatic reversal of the Obama administration's wait-and-see attitude on attacking Iran.
Leon Panetta now says (in a CBS interview on Tuesday, Dec. 20) that Iran has "reached a point where they can assemble a bomb in a year or potentially less" "That's a red line for us and that's a red line, obviously for the Israelis. If we have to do it we will deal with it." Asked if "it" included military steps, the US defence secretary replied: “There are no options off the table. A nuclear weapon in Iran is unacceptable”.
DEBKAfile notes that until now, the Obama administration has stood firmly by sanctions, as the only course of action, but Panetta did not even mention sanctions in the interview.
Just 24 hours later Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a warning: "Iran is playing a dangerous game that could ensnare the Middle East and others into conflict and a renewed arms race."
He is described, as quietly leading the ongoing military planning for an attack against Iran's nuclear weapons if the president gives the order to do so. "We are examining a range of options," said the US general.
However, those “options” are rapidly dwindling. Unlike the 1981 attack, when the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq was bombed shortly before its fuelling, Iran’s nuclear programme cannot easily be blocked by a single air-attack.
Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile installations, are scattered across Iran’s mountainous territory. Some would release radioactive material if attacked and many are deep underground. So if conventional, bunker-busting, bombs are incapable of penetrating such facilities, then nuclear weapons, ground attacks or even invasion would be the only options left – none of which would be very palatable to either the assailants or the wider international community.
And Iran has the capability of hitting back hard. The Straits of Hormuz, the passageway through which nearly 40% of the world’s oil, has to pass, could easily be blockaded by Iran – and Iran is, at this very moment, practicing for such a move, with a large naval exercise, which includes mine laying.
And so, Israel & the US have been painted into a very tight corner. Both have wanted to halt, Iran’s nuclear project, with effective economic sanctions, and avoid military action, but these hopes have been sabotaged, at every step, by Russia.
It is Russia, who has
· consistently blocked, or emasculated, resolutions against Iran, in the UN Security Council
· continued to claim that Iran’s nuclear aspirations are peaceful
· repeatedly warned against military action – and again today (29/12/2011) in Russia Today, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, says that the conflict looming between Iran and Western countries poses the “greatest danger” in the upcoming year.
· supplied the technology, and overseen the construction of, the Bushehr nuclear reactor
· provided assistance in the development of ballistic missiles
Russia’s antagonistic policy, has nevertheless yielded the desired result – which is the enfeeblement of America. Whilst in the 1990’s the US was supreme; it was the world’s policeman, and Russia, in contrast, was humiliated and debt ridden. Now it is Russia who is resurgent, and the USA who is weak.
And the US is really stuck between “a rock and a hard place”! If they attack, then they will be seen as militaristic – and no doubt, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, there will be complications. On the other hand, if they do not attack, and Iran obtains nuclear weapons, the US will be seen as impotent – and in that eventuality, other Middle Eastern countries have already declared their determination to develop their own nuclear weapons.
In either case, Russia’s standing in the world is enhanced, and its desire to re-assert its influence and authority in its “near abroad”, eastern, central and even western Europe and, of course, in the Middle East, is furthered.
The Bible warns us, in Ezekiel 38, that Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, ancient names for the territories of Russia, will gather its great confederacy of nations to its side – and that with these it will invade the land of Israel. One of those confederate nations, we are told in v5, is Persia or Iran. Their hatred of Israel, will undoubtedly move them to continue their alliance with Russia, and join this assault on Jerusalem.
Many other Biblical prophets also warn of this event. Dan 11v40-41 warn that
40 …at the time of the end… the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown…
A careful reading of these, and other passages, explicitly show us that this invasion force excludes, what Ezekiel describes as “the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof…” namely Britain & her commonwealth countries, including the oldest & greatest of those “young lions”, the United States of America. Instead Russia will lead her allies into a battle at Jerusalem, known scripturally as the Battle of Armageddon.
This battle, is not as popularly believed, the end of the world. It is however a great battle that opens the campaign, that will see Jesus Christ conquer the world and establish the Kingdom of God on earth.
So as we continue to see the Bible in the News, we confidently await that day. So join us again next week, God willing, at bibleinthenews.com
Bible in the News provides a weekly analysis of world politics and events
in the light of Bible prophecy — the Bible in the News!
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