Iran, Israel and War?

In early February, Iran touted its newest-generation nuclear centrifuges and increased capacity for producing higher-grade uranium (Agence France Presse, February 15, 2012).  Now, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency has released its latest report citing Iran for obstructing its investigative work and stating that Iran had not answered questions about possible military aspects of its nuclear programs.  However, Iran’s envoy to the agency insists that Iran desires to “keep talking” to the IAEA (BBC, February 24, 2012).

This week, Israel’s President and Defense Minister held high-level meetings in Washington related to the escalating situation in Iran.  While the U.S. continues to push for restraint and time to let international sanctions take their toll in Iran, Israel views the situation as a growing threat to its survival (www.salon.com, February 27, 2012).  Iran has also threatened pre-emptive strikes should it feel “backed into a corner” (BBC, February 21, 2012).  In a recent interview, former U.S. National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, warned that a nuclear Iran would be more predictable than a war started by Israel because a nuclear Iran would be easy to “isolate” on the world stage.  He also noted that a war between Israel and Iran would further destabilize an already unstable region (Deutsche Welle, February 27, 2012).  

Bible prophecies foretell that prior to the return of Jesus Christ, Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies and trampled by Gentiles, that half the city will go into captivity and that daily sacrifices begun by the Jews will be stopped (Luke 21:20; Zechariah 14:1-2; Daniel 8:11-12).  The growing turmoil in the Middle East may prepare the way for these prophesied events. 

For more information on this topic, review our booklet The Middle East in Prophecy.