Saudi Arabia and Iran Clash

Saudi Arabia closed its border with Yemen after Houthi rebel missiles fell near the international airport in Riyadh (Telegraph, November 6, 2017). The Yemeni proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran is heating up and increasingly worrisome. Iran is also stepping up its proxy war with Saudi Arabia in Lebanon through Hezbollah (Reuters, November 7, 2017). The clash between Saudi Arabia and Iran represents two opposing Islamic philosophies, Sunni and Shia, as both nations compete to lead the Arab world. As Reuters reports, a top Saudi aide claimed this week, “The Lebanese government will be dealt with as a government declaring war on Saudi Arabia, and all Lebanese must realize these dangers and work to resolve these issues before we reach the point of no return.”

Jesus Christ warned that “wars and rumors of wars” would increase as the end of the age approaches (Matthew 24:6-7), and the Saudi-Iranian conflict could be part of this escalation. Bible prophecy also tells of the formation of a “king of the south” that could be an alliance of Arab nations that will ultimately confront a European beast power referred to in Scripture as the “king of the north” (Daniel 11:40-43). For years this Work has urged its readers to “watch the Middle East” for events that will fulfill end-time prophecies. To learn more about coming events in the volatile Middle East, be sure to read or listen to The Middle East in Prophecy.