Three of the candidates for Iran’s elections described as frontrunners: From left, Saeed Jalili, Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. (Photo courtesy: IB Times/Al Arabiya)

It’s “election day” in Iran — some 50 million people are eligible to turn out at the polls and cast their ballot for Iran’s next President. But don’t get your hopes up . The game is rigged. The only “vote” that counts is that of the Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s  so-called “Supreme Leader.”

The question is: Who does Khamenei want to serve as the “face” of the regime?

• Remember: 686 candidates registered to run for president — but the regime allowed only 8 candidates to actually run.
• In the last few days, two of those eight candidates actually dropped out of the race.
• Thus, Iranians only have six candidates to choose from, all of whom are carefully vetted, loyal to Khamenei, and committed to Iran’s nuclear program.
• There’s no real choice here — but it is interesting to see how far the regime feels it must go to try to make the process seem legitimate.
• Watch for a possible “run off” — if no candidate gets 50%+ of the vote, the top two candidates will face off head-to-head next week. The mullahs sometimes create this scenario to make the election process seem like it’s really democratic, and to give “voters” another chance to choose the “right” person (ie, Khamenei’s real choice).
• Watch to see whether Khamenei chooses someone with far more international diplomatic experience than Ahmadinejad came into office with.
• Watch to see whether Khamenei chooses someone who shares his eschatology and is outspoken about his belief in the coming of the Twelfth Imam, or someone who does not talk about such things and will leave End Times issues to the Supreme Leader alone. [Article worth reading: Iran’s apocalyptic policy makers.]
• Watch to see whether the “green movement” turns out on the streets to protest these rigged elections, and whether the protests — if there are any this time — are enjoined by millions as in 2009, or whether the opposition has been intimidated into keeping quiet.
• Watch for signs of the Ayatollah’s defiance against the U.S. and Israel.
• Watch for signs of what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will do next. He is stepping down after eight years in office. He is legally barred from serving more than two four-year terms. He was Khamenei’s choice in the past because the two share a deep and passionate belief that the Islamic “messiah” known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam is coming at any moment. Together, they made it their mission to prepare the way for the Twelfth Imam’s arrival and for their jihadist ”War of Annihilation” to wipe Israel and the Jewish people “off the map.” Unfortunately for Khamenei, Ahmadinejad was not simply a zealous true believer in the End of Days. He was also a nut who repeatedly embarrassed the Supreme Leader inside Iran and the global stage.
• Watch for public statements and reactions to the sham elections by Israeli leaders, and especially Netanyahu — once the “elections” are over, Netanyahu may be increasingly ready to launch a preemptive strike. At Auschwitz yesterday, he freshly laid the moral imperative of stopping Iran before they can foment another Holocaust. War may be coming soon.
• Let us pray for peace, but be prepared for war.

Here are the final 6 “candidates” that have been allowed to “compete”:

1. Saeed Jalili, Iran’s long-time lead nuclear negotiator, close advisor to Khamenei, hardline opponent of the West, and staunch advocate of Iran’s nuclear program
2. Ali-Akbar Velayati, Iran’s former Foreign Minister for sixteen years, a senior advisor to Khamenei on all foreign policy matters, and recently endorsed by a prominent group of mullahs in the religious city of Qom
3. Hassan Rowhani, (also spelled “Rouhani”) director of the Strategic Research Center of the Expediency Council who is focusing primarily on improving Iran’s economy
4. Mohammad Gharazi, former telecommunications minister
5. Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, the current Mayor of Tehran, whom a recent (and rare) poll suggests is extremely popular (though some analyst speculate this could harm his chances of being tapped because Khamenei does not like strong, popular leaders around him)
6. Moshen Rezaei, former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

Two candidates quit the race this week:

• Mohammad Reza Araf, former Iranian vice president, who was trying to claim the mantle of the reformers.
• Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, an Iranian parliament member.

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>> To learn more about the Bible prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog,” please click here.

>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu tours the Auschwitz death camp. (Photo credit: AP)

>> Latest news & analysis on the Iranian so-called “elections,” set for Friday.

Three quick thoughts as I write this blog:

1. First, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is visiting Auschwitz again. In 2009, he visited the notorious death camp and declared that the prophecies of Ezekiel chapter 37 had come true, that the death and destruction of the Holocaust had led to the prophetic rebirth of the State of Israel, just as the Bible promised it would.
2. Second, the Prime Minister warned during his 2009 visit to the Nazi concentration camp that Israel had to be vigilant to make sure another Holocaust never happened. Now, Netanyahu is vowing to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons and wiping Israel “off the map.” This , in combination to other statements made by Israeli officials this week, suggests the Israeli government may be approaching the point where it will launch a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, in a scenario that could echo the one I laid out in my most recent novel, Damascus Countdown. 
3. Third, the Prime Minister’s 2009 visit inspired me to visit Auschwitz. I finally was able to visit with several pastor friends in November 2011. This, in turn, prompted me to write a novel about World War II, the Holocaust and Auschwitz in particular. I literally turned in the manuscript to my publisher, Tyndale House, today. It will release next spring, Lord willing.

Consider the latest news coverage of the Prime Minister’s visit to Poland this week, and to Auschwitz today:

“The world knew about the Holocaust and did nothing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from the Auschwitz death camp Thursday, vowing that Israel would take matters into its own hands to prevent a second Holocaust,” reported the Times of Israel.

“The Allied leaders knew about the Holocaust as it was happening,” said Netanyahu, while during Block 27 in the world’s most notorious death camp. “They understood perfectly what was taking place in the death camps. They were asked to act, they could have acted, and they did not. For us Jews, the lesson is clear. We must not stand idle before the threats of annihilation. We must not bury our heads in the sand, or let others do our work. From here, the place that provides testimony for the will to eradicate us, I, the prime minister of Israel, the Jewish state, tell all the nations of the world: The State of Israel will do whatever is necessary to prevent a second Holocaust.”

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his two-day visit to Poland, which Germany’s Nazis occupied during World War II and where they committed the  worst crimes ever against the Jewish people, with a stern warning about a potential Holocaust from Iran,” reported the Associated Press. “Netanyahu said Wednesday the upcoming ‘so-called’ Iranian presidential election will ‘change nothing’ in the Islamic republic’s quest for nuclear weapons and that the regime will continue to pursue a bomb aimed at destroying  Israel. Iran insists its uranium enrichment program has only peaceful goals.”

“Iran’s election overseers have approved a list of would-be hopefuls, most of  them loyalists favored by both the theocracy and the military, and any future president will likely side with the supreme leadership’s nuclear aspirations,” the AP noted. “‘This is a regime that is building nuclear weapons with the expressed purpose to annihilate Israel’s 6 million Jews,’ Netanyahu said, alluding to the number of Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II. ‘We will not allow this to  happen. We will never allow another Holocaust.'”

“Israel considers Iran its greatest threat because of its support of Islamic militant groups, its arsenal of long-range missiles and primarily its advanced  nuclear program,” notes AP. “Netanyahu’s comments in Warsaw carried added significance since they came a day before he travels to the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in southern Poland, where he is to inaugurate a new pavilion meant to educate visitors about  the Holocaust and the Nazi Germany’s quest to exterminate the Jewish people. Netanyahu, whose father was born in Warsaw, has an emotional connection to  the Holocaust, although he has faced criticism for citing it frequently in the  context of current events, notably regarding the potential nuclear threat from  Iran. For years, Netanyahu has used his annual address on Israel’s Holocaust  remembrance day to caution about the danger of a nuclear Iran and vowing that ‘never again’ will the Jews be powerless to defend themselves. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Netanyahu remained undeterred by the  critics, insisting the intentions of the Iranians are just as murderous of those  that existed in World War II.”

“The comparison is intentional,” said Netanyahu. “Does Iran want to destroy the state of  Israel, first and foremost its Jews? The answer is yes. Here is where the comparison diverges, since there was no state of Israel back then that could defend itself. The  difference is not in the hatred of Jews and the will to destroy them. This is something that is pretty consistent in history and even modern history. The Holocaust didn’t change this situation.”

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>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

>> To learn more about the Bible prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog,” please click here.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Is judgment coming for his crimes against humanity?

The killing in Syria just continues unabated. The sins of the Assad regime — and the Radical Islamists, and the Iranians and Hamas and Russia — just keep mounting.

Is there a point of no return? Can Syria ever be put back together? 

Is it possible that the geopolitical state that have long known as the Arab republic of Syria will cease to exist in the not-too-distant future? Is it even possible that we are heading towards the judgment of Damascus, as foretold in the Bible in Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49, in which the city will be utterly destroyed?

Here are the latest tragic statistics:

“The death toll in Syria reached at least 93,000 at the end of April, but the true number from the violence now in its third year may be much higher, the United Nations human rights office said on Thursday,” reports Reuters. “An average of more than 5,000 people have been killed every month since July, while the Damascus region and Aleppo have recorded the highest tolls since November, it said in its latest study of documented deaths.”

“This extremely high rate of killings, month after month, reflects the drastically deteriorating pattern of the conflict over the past year,” Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

“The previous UN figure, issued in mid-May, was that 80,000 had been killed in the conflict, which began with peaceful protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad in March 2011 and turned into an armed rebellion a few months later,” Reuters notes. “The latest analysis was based on data from eight sources, including the Syrian government and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Killings were only included if the name of the victim and date and location of death were known.”

Let us remember that each number is a person, and each person has a story, and each person has a family. Let us be praying for the people of Syria, and for the Church in Syria, that God may have mercy on these people and bring an end to the bloodletting.

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>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

Meeting with the Honorable Diane Ablonczy, Canada’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, in Ottawa.

Meeting with the Honorable Noel Kinsella, Speaker of the Canadian Senate.

(Ottawa, Canada) — For the past several days, I’ve been in Ottawa, Canada, with several colleagues and I wanted to give you a quick report. We met with nearly two dozen Members of Parliament (including members of the government, and members of the opposition party, the NDP) to discuss the crises facing Israel, Iran & Syria.  These included:

• Honorable Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas), who is also a Member of the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence.
• MP Dean Allison, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Committee.
• Senator Noel Kinsella, Speaker of the Canadian Senate.

While I’m not at liberty to discuss what these Canadian officials said to me, I can share with you what my colleagues and I shared with them.

1. First and foremost, I thanked the MPs from the ruling party (the Conservative Party) for having in Prime Minister Stephen Harper the most pro-Israel leader on the planet, and for being part of the most pro-Israel government on the planet. Canada is pursuing a principled and profoundly moral position with vigor, integrity and consistency. (see below)
2. I noted it would be positive if Harper made a state visit to Israel this year to show his solidarity with the Jewish State. On the same trip, he could meet with Palestinian leaders, and visit King Abdullah II in Jordan who needs to be encouraged as a man of peace and strengthened against Radicals trying to bring him down and impose a Islamist regime in Amman.
3. At the same time, I also thanked the Canadian leaders for showing their deep and profound support for the enslaved people of Iran. The Harper Government last fall cut ties with the Iranian regime, closed Canada’s embassy in Tehran, expelled Iranian diplomats from Canada, and are reaching out directly to the Iranian people to show solidarity with them in their suffering, and calling upon them to overthrow the Ayatollah Khamenei and his cruel dictatorship.
4. We offered an analysis of the Iranian so-called “elections” coming up on Friday, who some of the key players are, and considered the Ayatollah Khamenei’s objectives.
5. We discussed the current nuclear threat posed by Iran, including the Israeli Intelligence Minister’s quote that Iran is “very close” to the red line and is preparing to build 30 nuclear warheads per year. We discussed the possibility that Israel may soon have to launch a massive preemptive military strike. I gave them copies of my latest novel, Damascus Countdown, and we talked about the implications of such a preemptive strike, and why much of the world could turn against Israel. In that context, I asked the MPs to accelerate discussions they are having amongst themselves on how Canada would stand with the State of Israel if such a conflict were to break out, particularly in using their bully pulpit to tell world leaders and the media the truth about the conflict and why people of goodwill should stand with Israel to stop the Iranian mullahs from getting the Bomb that could bring about a second Holocaust, terrorize Iran’s other neighbors, and further enslave and terrorize the people of Iran.
6. We discussed the civil war in Syria and the possibility that the geopolitical state of Syria we know today may not exact when the dust settles from this bloodbath. We discussed how Iran and Hezbollah are injecting themselves into the Syria conflict, not so much to prop up Assad as to hold the territory as a forward position from which to eventually attack Israel. I shared with several of the leaders the prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49 about the coming destruction of Damascus.
7. We discussed how Russian President Vladimir Putin is reasserting Russian military power into the Middle East region, including naval power, and why this is so dangerous.
8. We discussed who Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is, how he views these various conflicts, and how he makes decisions.
9. We also discussed how Christians in Canada, the U.S., and around the world are seeking to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus. It was an honor to have Tom Yancy, a Joshua Fund board member, on the trip with me to help explain how The Joshua Fund operates to educate people about what’s happening in the epicenter, and to care for the poor and needy in the region with food, clothing, medical supplies and other humanitarian relief and spiritual encouragement.
10. The Abrahamic Covenant is clear — God will bless those who bless Israel, and curse those who curse Israel (see Genesis 12:1-3), so let us also seek to be a source of blessing. At the same time, the Lord also wants us to love Israel’s neighbors, and her enemies. While we bless Israel, let us be sure to find ways to bless the Palestinian people, the Syrians, the Iranians, and all the people of the epicenter.

In addition, I had the opportunity to preach at the Metropolitan Bible Church in Ottawa on Sunday night on the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39, examining them in the light of current events.

It was an honor to be invited to meet with these Canadian government leaders, and to be able to pray with and for them. They are principled and courageous men and women who, along with their Prime Minister, are boldly and warmly standing with Israel and the Jewish people at a time when few leaders in the world are doing so.

Let us thank the Lord for them, and keep them all in our prayers at this critical time.

Highlights of the Policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Government:

• Prime Minister Harper was the first world leader to order his UN delegation to walk out of a speech at the UN General Assembly by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad several years ago.
• PM Harper was the first world leader to announce Canada would not be sending a delegation to the UN’s ”Durban II” conference which was supposed to be about opposing racism but turned into a vicious anti-Israel forum whose keynote speaker was Ahmadinejad, a man who has denied the Holocaust and has repeatedly called for the “annihilation” of the Jewish State.
• The Harper Government has courageous fought anti-Semitism.
• When the Gaza flotilla crisis unfolded, the Harper Government stood strongly with Israel’s right to defend herself from terrorist and left-wing activist attacks, whereas the White House equivocated.
• In contrast to the Obama Administration, Prime Minister Harper and his Government has consistently built a warm and increasingly close professional relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over the last eight years.
• The Harper Government has strongly urged the world to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program before it is too late.
• The Harper Government has been so pro-Israel that Canada recently lost its bid to be on the UN Security Council because anti-Israel countries coalesced against Canada and prevented her from attaining such a globally influential position.
• The Harper Government has explicitly called for “regime change” in Iran, something the Obama administration has not done.
• The Harper Government is reaching out directly to the Iranian people and calling on them to overthrow their “clerical military dictatorship.”
• In September 2012, the Harper Government cut diplomatic ties with Iran, closed the Canadian embassy in Tehran, and expelled Iranian diplomats from Canada.

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>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

>> To learn more about the Bible prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog,” please click here.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz (left) confers with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

(Ottawa, Canada) — For the last two days, I’ve been in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, and the invitation of various Members of Parliament and Cabinet Members in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government. I’ve come to thank these leaders for Canada’s extraordinary international support for the State of Israel — I have long argued that PM Harper is the most pro-Israel leader in the world — and to discuss with them the dangers ahead with regards to Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and most serious Iran and its nuclear weapons program. More on that in a few days when my meetings are complete.

For now we have new developments to process — namely that Israel’s Minister for Intelligence and Strategic Affairs is publicly saying that Iran is “very close” to crossing the red line, and is preparing to build 30 nuclear warheads a year. Such analysis undoubtedly reflects the view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Steinitz is a very close friend and confidante of the PM.

This development gives new credence to the view that Israel is waiting for the Iranian elections on Friday to be over, and may in fact be coming to the decision that a massive preemptive military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities is the Jewish State’s only option to prevent a second Holocaust. In my recent novel, Damascus Countdown, I lay out a scenario of how an Israeli first strike could look, as well as what might happen if Iran draws Syria into a full-blown retaliation.

Let us not grow weary of praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and the region, according to Psalm 122:6. This is more important than ever as war clouds build on the horizon.

Here are more details:

“Iran is working round the clock to enlarge its nuclear infrastructure with the eventual aim of developing an industry capable of building up to 30 bombs a year, an Israeli minister charged on Monday,” reports Agence France Presse. “Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said Tehran was ‘very close’ to crossing the red line laid out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year. But he said it was biding its time and building uranium-enrichment facilities before making the final push for weapons-grade material.”

“The Iranians are getting very close now to the red line… They have close to 200 kilos — 190 kilos (418 pounds) — of 20 percent enriched uranium,” Steinitz said. “Once they have 250 kilos, this is enough to make the final rush to 90 percent,” the level of enrichment required for a nuclear warhead, he said in a presentation to the Foreign Press Association, AFP reported.

“It is a matter of weeks or maybe two months to jump from 20 percent to 90 percent with so many centrifuges,” he said. “What they are doing now — instead of crossing the red line, they are widening and enlarging their capacity by putting in more centrifuges, faster centrifuges.”

“Iran’s aim, he charged, was to build a nuclear arsenal, not just a single bomb,” noted AFP.

“Many people are saying it’s a question of the Iranian bomb — whether they will have it or not. No. We are speaking about an Iranian arsenal.”

Other key points made by Minister Steinitz:

• Steinitz also ruled out any change in policy that might result from the Iranian presidential elections which are to take place on Friday, saying the result was already known.
• “Nothing is going to change. There will be, unfortunately, no significant changes because of these so-called elections because (supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei has already won,” he said.
• “He is the leader and he makes the decisions and he already made his decision to spend many billions of dollars on building this nuclear industry with only one aim,” he charged.
• “The decision was already made to get nuclear weapons — you don’t spent so much money and you don’t suffer $70 billion of losses (due to international sanctions) in one year only to show that you can spin some centrifuges,” he concluded.

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>> To learn more about the Bible prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog,” please click here.

>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

Three of the candidates for Iran’s elections described as frontrunners: From left, Saeed Jalili, Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. (Photo courtesy: IB Times/Al Arabiya)

UPDATED: This is an important week in the history of modern Iran. Indeed, it could prove a turning point in Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the region’s march towards a major war.

On Friday, millions of Iranians will turn out to vote in national elections, hoping to choose their country’s next President. Actually, the whole exercise will once again be a sham. It might look like democracy on television. But behind the scenes, the forces of the Ayatollah Khamenei will be stuffing the ballot boxes to make sure the Supreme Leader’s personal choice is “elected.” That’s how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was first “elected” in 2005. That’s how Ahmadinejad was “re-elected” in 2009. That’s how all “elections” are done in Iran. It’s all for show. The only vote that counts is Khamenei’s. The question this week isn’t whether the will of the suffering Iranian people will prevail. (It won’t.)

The question is simply this: Who does Khamenei want to be the face of the regime?

Consider this useful factoid — of the 686 Iranian candidates who filled out applications to run for president, only eight were permitted by the regime to actually run, and two of those have dropped out in the last few days.

[For updated news stories and analysis, scroll down to the bottom]

Ahmadinejad is stepping down after eight years in office. He is legally barred from serving more than two four-year terms. He was Khamenei’s choice in the past because the two share a deep and passionate belief that the Islamic “messiah” known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam is coming at any moment. Together, they made it their mission to prepare the way for the Twelfth Imam’s arrival and for their jihadist “War of Annihilation” to wipe Israel and the Jewish people “off the map.” Unfortunately for Khamenei, Ahmadinejad was not simply a zealous true believer in the End of Days. He was also a nut who repeatedly embarrassed the Supreme Leader inside Iran and the global stage.

I am, therefore, curious to see who Khamenei will choose. My operating theory is that he will pick someone deeply loyal to him personally, intensely loyal to his regime and its nuclear weapons program, yet not an overt religious fanatic. I tend to believe he will pick someone who will be a tough, firm, hard line defender of the Iranian government, but also one who is more savvy on the international diplomatic front and won’t embarrass Khamenei.

After all, I believe Khamenei’s main goal now is to keep Israel, the U.S. and the rest of the world from doing anything decisive to stop Iran from getting The Bomb. That likely means someone who will keep negotiations going, offering a bone here and a bone there, but all the while simply buying time until Iran has an operational arsenal of nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them against the Jewish state and her allies.

Here are the leading eight “candidates”:

1. Saeed Jalili, Iran’s long-time lead nuclear negotiator, close advisor to Khamenei, hardline opponent of the West, and staunch advocate of Iran’s nuclear program
2. Ali-Akbar Velayati, Iran’s former Foreign Minister for sixteen years, a senior advisor to Khamenei on all foreign policy matters, and recently endorsed by a prominent group of mullahs in the religious city of Qom
3. Hassan Rohani, (also spelled “Rouhani”) director of the Strategic Research Center of the Expediency Council who is focusing primarily on improving Iran’s economy
4. Mohammad Reza Araf, former Iranian vice president, who is trying to claim the mantle of the reformers [UPDATE: quit the race this week]
5. Mohammad Gharazi, former telecommunications minister
6. Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, the current Mayor of Tehran, whom a recent (and rare) poll suggests is extremely popular (though some analyst speculate this could harm his chances of being tapped because Khamenei does not like strong, popular leaders around him)
7. Moshen Rezaei, former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps
8. Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, an Iranian parliament member [UPDATE: quit the race on June 10th.]

Several other major Iranian political leaders were barred from running, including former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Ahmadinejad’s protégé, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.

No one is watching Iran this week closer that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. Netanyahu and Yaalon believe Iran is dangerously close — or at — the “red line” Netanyahu laid out at the U.N. last fall. That is, they believe Iran is at or near the point that they could build not just one nuclear warhead but several, and thus very close to the point Israel may have to launch a preemptive military strike since the international community has not take decisive action to keep Iran from crossing the red line.

That said, the Israelis do hold out the possibility, however slim, that Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei might use the occasion of Iran’s so-called “elections” this Friday to signal a significant backing away from his current bid for The Bomb. But they are not holding their breath.

Sure, if Khamenei dies this week, and is miraculously replaced by someone who does not want to usher in the coming of the Twelfth Imam, and export the Islamic Revolution, and keep Iran the leading sponsor of terrorism, and wipe Israel off the map, and bring down the so-called “Great Satan” of America, then it will be a positive week indeed and a reason for hope.

Short of that, we can have no doubt that Khamenei will keep pressing forward for nuclear weapons on his operating assumption that world leaders are not going to stop him, and that Israel will flinch and do nothing decisive to stop him either.

Once Israel and the world sees who Khamenei has chosen to be the face of the regime, we’ll have a better sense of how the drama will play out throughout the year. War could be close. We must continue praying for the peace of Jerusalem and for all the people of the regime.

UPDATES:

• Interesting analysis of Iranian elections by Meir Javedanfar, Iranian-born Jew who now lives in Israel and is an expert on Iranian political affairs
• Iran elections 2013: After Ahmadinejad, who will be the next president? [Analysis of Iranian elections posted on former CIA agent Reza Kahlili’s blog]
• Nuclear negotiator Jalili edges ahead in Iranian election race (Reuters)
• Khamenei’s diplomatic adviser Velayati eyes Iran’s presidency (Reuters)
• The fear factor: Iran’s Saeed Jalili plays on tension with West (Al Arabiya)
• Iranian Supreme Leader’s Brother Supports Moderate Candidate (RFE/RL)
• Is Jalili The Iranian Establishment’s Candidate Of Choice? (RFE/RL)
• Virtual Election Gives Iranians Chance To Vote For Unofficial Candidates (RFE/RL)
• Iran’s former president: Khamenei erasing elections (Reuters)

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>> To learn more about the Bible prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog,” please click here.

>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

Russian navy now on the move near Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

>> Putin offers to put Russian troops on the Golan Heights to serve as UN peacekeepers. Prophetic significance?

UPDATED: “Russia has deployed a naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time since the Soviet era, a move Russian President Vladimir Putin says is aimed at defending Russian security, but which comes as Moscow faces off with the West over Syria,” reports Israel Hayom. “Russia’s military chief of staff said on Thursday that Russia had stationed 16 warships and three ship-based helicopters in the region.” 

“Putin said the deployment was not ‘saber-rattling’ and not meant as a threat to any nation,” the Israeli news outlet reported. “‘This is a strategically important region and we have tasks to carry out there to provide for the national security of the Russian Federation,’ Putin said. On Wednesday, Russian warships believed to be carrying arms to resupply the Syrian regime were spotted in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, according to a CNN report. The report cited U.S. intelligence sources that stated they had identified the ships leaving Russian ports several days ago. Using U.S. satellite imagery, they had further identified containers thought to be carrying parts of the advanced S-300 anti-missile system, as well as other weapons to be used by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military…..”

“Large-scale naval exercises Russia held in March and ship movements near Syria have been seen in the West as muscle-flexing by Moscow, which has sold weapons to Assad’s government and shielded it from any action by the U.N. Security Council,” Israel Hayom reported. “Russia maintains its only port in the Mediterranean in the Syrian coastal city of Tartus. Putin’s announcement comes days after Moscow said it planned to resume patrols by nuclear-armed submarines in the southern seas as part of a Putin’s broader effort to revive Russia’s military might. Putin has stressed the importance of a strong military since returning to the presidency last May. In 13 years in power, he has often cited external threats when talking of the need for agile armed forces and Russian political unity.”

Why is this is significant? Because it shows Putin is steadily escalating Russian military involvement in the Middle East — the Kremlin is supplying arms to the Assad regime in Damascus, offering to put Russian troops on the Golan Heights as part of a UN “peacekeeping” mission, and bolstering its alliances with Iran and Lebanon.

Consider the latest analysis by Charles Krauthammer:

• “On Wednesday, Qusair fell to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Qusair is a strategic town that connects Damascus with Assad’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean, with its ports and Russian naval base. It’s a major strategic shift. Assad’s forces can now advance on rebel-dominated areas in central and northern Syria, including Aleppo.
• “For the rebels, it’s a devastating loss of territory, morale and their supply corridor to Lebanon. No one knows if this reversal of fortune will be the last, but everyone knows that Assad now has the upper hand….
• “What altered the tide of battle was brazen outside intervention. A hardened, well-trained, well-armed Hezbollah force — from the terrorist Shiite group that dominates Lebanon and answers to Iran — crossed into Syria and drove the rebels out of Qusair, which Syrian artillery has left a smoking ruin.
• “This is a huge victory not just for Tehran but also for Moscow, which sustains Assad in power and prizes its warm-water port at Tartus, Russia’s only military base outside of the former Soviet Union. Vladimir Putin has stationed a dozen or more Russian warships offshore, further protecting his strategic outpost and his Syrian client.
• “The losers? NATO-member Turkey, the major supporter of the rebels; Jordan, America’s closest Arab ally, now drowning in half a million Syrian refugees; and America’s Gulf allies, principal weapons suppliers to the rebels. And the United States, whose bystander president, having declared that Assad must go, that he has lost all legitimacy and that his fall is just a matter of time, is looking not just feckless but clueless.”

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>> To learn more about the Bible prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog,” please click here.

>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

UPDATED: Vladimir Putin, the Czar of Russia, has offered to put Russian troops on the Golan Heights — the mountain range controlled by Israel but claimed by Syria — to serve as U.N. peacekeepers between Syria and Israel, now that the government of Austria has decided withdraw its participation in the peacekeeping force.

Putin and Netanyahu.

Putin has spoken directly by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the offer, and presumably would not have made it without first discussing the idea with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

If both sides agree, this would put armed Russian soldiers on the northern mountains of Israel for the first time in the modern history of the State of Israel.

The move might also have prophetic significance. As I have noted on this blog in the past, in the Old Testament of the Bible — in Ezekiel 38 & 39 — the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel warns that in the “last days” of history, a dictator (Gog) from Russia (Magog) will form an alliance with Iran (Persia) and a group of other Middle Eastern countries to surround and attack Israel. Curiously, Ezekiel 38:15 specifically notes that Gog “will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north.” Ezekiel 39:2 says Gog will come “from the remotest parts of the north” and come “against the mountains of Israel.” It would be both disturbing and intriguing if Russian troops were suddenly positioned on the northern mountains of Israel, especially at a time when Russia and Iran are building a strategic alliance together and other events are occurring that are consistent with the prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog.”

[UPDATE: “The Russian offer followed an announcement by Austria that it would withdraw its UN peacekeepers from the Israeli-Syrian border,” reported Haaretz on Saturday. “Austria’s peacekeepers account for about 380 of the 900-member UN force monitoring a four-decade-old ceasefire between Syria and Israel. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 350 on May 31, 1974 in order to monitor a ceasefire between the two countries….Speaking before the Security Council, Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin repeated Putin’s offer to send a battalion of 300 soldiers to take the place of the outgoing Austrians. Churkin pointed out that in order for this to happen, both Syria and Israel must grant their approval for the move, as the 1974 Disengagement Agreement stipulates that the UNDOF in the Golan Heights must not be comprised of soldiers from one of the Security Council members – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, or France.”]

“President Vladimir Putin offered on Friday to send Russian troops to the Golan Heights to replace the Austrians who are withdrawing from the U.N. peacekeeping force that monitors the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces,” reported the Associated Press on Friday evening.

“Naturally, that will happen only if the regional powers show interest in our proposal and if the U.N. secretary-general asks us to do that,” AP quoted Putin as saying, “adding that Ban Ki-moon had personally asked him to increase Russia’s participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations during a visit to Russia last month.”

The AP also reported the following:

• Putin’s offer was quickly turned down, however, by Josephine Guerrero, spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping department. She said that while the offer was appreciated, the disengagement agreement and accompanying protocol do not allow the participation of troops from a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
• Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that he raised Putin’s offer during Security Council consultations on the U.N. force, known as UNDOF, which has been caught up in the spillover of fighting between government and opposition fighters in Syria, including being the target of three hostage-takings by rebel fighters.
• “Obviously we are aware of that document, but we believe that times have changed,” Churkin said. “The document was signed 39 years ago at the height of Cold War and the whole context of the war of 1973. Now the context is completely different.”
• Churkin said council members agreed that Syria and Israel would have to approve a Russian deployment. He added that U.N. legal experts would also examine whether the council might have to adopt a resolution if the Russian offer moves forward.
• The Kremlin said Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed Syria during a telephone conversation on Friday. No details were given. Russia is a close ally of Syria and Putin would almost certainly not have made the offer without advance approval from its president, Bashar Assad.

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>> To learn more about the Bible prophecies of the “War of Gog & Magog,” please click here.

>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.

Rami Hamdallah, the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister (photo credit: Reuters)

“Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and his West Bank-based government were sworn in on Thursday and one of their main challenges will be reaching a power-sharing deal with the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza,” reports Haaretz. “Hamdallah, a political independent and linguistics professor, was named on Sunday by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas to replace Salam Fayyad, who quit in April but remained in his post while a successor was sought.”

“This is my government and you have all my trust and protection,” Abbas said to the new cabinet members in broadcast remarks. “This government will work hard in the time available to it, whether it be weeks, months or whatever.”

“Hamas has called Hamdallah’s appointment illegal and said Abbas should have focused instead on ending the internal Palestinian divide,” Haaretz noted. “Fayyad, a former World Bank official credited with building Palestinian institutions needed to gain independence from Israel, resigned over an economic crisis caused by cuts in Western funds and temporary Israeli freezes on money transfers imposed over unilateral Palestinian moves on statehood. As prime minister, Hamdallah is expected to focus on a domestic agenda, particularly the Palestinian economy. He will have two deputies, political science professor Zeyad Abu Amr, and Mohammed Mustafa, who heads the Palestine Investment Fund.”

Please pray for Prime Minister Hamdallah and for the Palestinian people. Please pray especially for Palestinian Christians and for the Lord to bless and be gracious to these people who have endured so many hardships from so many directions.

Forty-six years to the week after the Six Day War of June 1967, serious new tensions are mounting on the Israeli-Syrian border, with fears rising that a major conflict between the two countries could be coming. Israeli military forces have been put on alert as violence gets closer to the demilitarized zone and after Syrian rebels seized control of a border crossing post.

 “Rebels fighting the Syrian government seized the only border crossing along the Israeli-Syrian cease-fire line in the Golan Heights on Thursday, according to the Israeli military and rebel groups, forcing the United Nations peacekeeping soldiers who patrol the crossing to vacate it and bringing the Syrian conflict ever closer to Israeli-held territory,” the New York Times is reporting. “Israeli forces were placed on alert along the frontier as the violence of the Syrian civil war threatened to spill over.”

“The rebel takeover of the border crossing, Quneitra, lasted for several hours,” noted the Times. “Later in the day Syrian state news media reported government forces had routed the insurgents and established control. Clashes in the area raged through much of the day. The mayhem was enough to threaten the continuation of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, the longtime peacekeeping mission in the sensitive and disputed area. The Quneitra crossing is patrolled by Austrian United Nations peacekeepers, who were ordered to pull back for their own safety. Later in Vienna the Austrian government said it was withdrawing its contingent from the force. Austria’s chancellor, Werner Faymann, was quoted by APA, the Austrian press agency, as saying he had spoken with Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and ‘personally informed him about the decision.’ Josephine Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the United Nations peacekeeping forces, confirmed in an e-mail message that Austria had informed the United Nations of its intended withdrawal….”

The Times also reported that “Austrians account for about 380 of the 1,000-strong United Nations force that has monitored the disengagement zone between Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights since 1974. The Philippines provides about 300 and India provides the rest. A fourth country, Croatia, withdrew its contingent earlier this year. Twice in recent months a rebel group has taken groups of the Filipino peacekeepers captive, releasing them unharmed after several days. The Philippine government has been considering pulling its peacekeepers out of the area. Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing regret over Austria’s decision and said it hoped the Austrian withdrawal would ‘not be conducive to further escalation in the area.’ The statement also said Israel expected the United Nations to maintain the peacekeeping force under the Security Council resolution that created it four decades ago….”

“Israel has repeatedly declared that it has no intention of getting involved in the Syrian civil war but that it will act to protect its own interests,” reports the Times. “Israel’s minister of defense, Moshe Yaalon, said this week that Israel would not tolerate the transfer of advanced weapons from the Syrian government to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia; a loss of Syrian government control over chemical weapons; or a heating up of the Golan frontier and a spillover of fire into Israeli-held territory. Tensions have risen between Israel and Syria after three airstrikes on Syrian soil this year that targeted advanced weapons and were attributed to Israel. There have been numerous instances of fire spilling over into the Israeli-held Golan Heights. The Israeli military said that much of it was assumed to be stray fire. But last month, Syria acknowledged it had intentionally attacked an Israeli target, a military vehicle that was shot at as it patrolled the cease-fire line. Syria said the jeep had crossed into its territory on the Golan Heights, which Israel denied. In that instance and others, Israeli tanks have fired back several times at Syrian positions.”

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>> Read Damascus Countdown, the New York Times best-selling novel.

>> To learn more about the work of The Joshua Fund — and/or to provide a tax-deductible contribution to this work — please visit www.joshuafund.net.