Will the Iranian Elections in 2009 be the Catalyst that starts a Middle East War?
July 3, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Three months ago the first article, in the April 2 Blotter Report from ABC News, stated that Iran could have enough material for a nuclear bomb by 2009. The Haaretz report on June 30 indicates the 2009 date is a good estimate. The sanctions placed on Iran are working, and the economy is worsening every month, being felt most in refined gasoline and domestic goods shortages. If the economy does not improve by the mid-2009 elections, Ahmadinejad stands an excellent chance of losing the election. He is a crazed Islamic Shiite Mahdi fanatic, who is quite likely to attempt to start a war in 2009, if he knows the election is lost.
In Archive Prophecy Update Number 7 in 2001, I stated: “I feel confident the attack will not occur before 2003, but I do believe it will occur before 2012.” In 2006 I set my guesstimate that the war was likely to occur at some point in time from 2008 to the end of 2012. The events of the last 18 months are making that time span guess look better and better. But as I have always said, that is a guess, no more and no less!
Begin April 2, 2007 Report from the Blotter on ABC News
Exclusive: Iran Nuclear Bomb Could Be Possible by 2009
April 02, 2007 6:15 PM
Brian Ross and Christopher Isham Report:
Iran has more than tripled its ability to produce enriched uranium in the last three months, adding some 1,000 centrifuges which are used to separate radioactive particles from the raw material.
The development means Iran could have enough material for a nuclear bomb by 2009, sources familiar with the dramatic upgrade tell ABC News.
The sources say the unexpected expansion is taking place at Iran’s nuclear enrichment plant outside the city of Natanz, in a hardened facility 70 feet underground.
A spokesperson for the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, declined to comment citing the “extreme sensitivity” of the situation with Iran.
Iran has already declared its above-ground operations at Natanz have some 320 centrifuges.
Begin June 30, 2007 Article Extracted From Haaretz
Report: Ahjmadinejad says is now nuclear, cannot be drawn back
June 30, 2007
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Israel Radio reported Saturday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has released a statement saying Iran has become a nuclear nation and no one can cause the country to backtrack.
“Our enemies cannot harm us, not because they don’t wish to, but because they cannot do so due to their difficult situation,” Israel Radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday defended a controversial fuel rationing plan in Iran, state-television IRIB reported.
According to Isral Radio, Ahmadinejad said the rationing of fuel has made Iran better able to withstand pressure from the international community.
He was referring to sanctions placed on the country following its refusal
to halt uranium enrichment as part of its nuclear program.
He said the enemies of Iran have acknowledged the fact that the rationing of fuel has made his country “undefeatable,” the radio reported.
Khamenei said in a meeting with government officials that the surplus from the rationing plan and non-import of oil could be used for other development plans in the country.
Although Iran is a leading OPEC member and the world’s fourth biggest oil producer with a daily oil production of 4.2 million barrels, the Islamic state must import more than 40 per cent of the country’s oil needs and spend 5 – 8 billion dollars annually on imports due to a lack of refineries and a preference for oil exports.
Riots broke out in protest against the decision, and several gas stations were set on fire.
Ahmadinejad defended the plan as a complex decision that required national will to help
the country gain invulnerability to international threats.
Iranian officials had earlier said the plan should also be regarded as a precautionary move in case of United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran over its contr
oversial nuclear projects.
Ahmadinejad further called for a switch from oil to natural gas in order to
further decrease the necessity of oil imports.
The harsh protests confirmed the government’s fears that the move would dent Ahmadinejad’s popularity before parliamentary elections in March next year and even negatively affect his chances for re-election in 2009.
Report: IAEA team to visit Iran
The team from the UN nuclear watchdog will visit Iran on July 11-13 to discuss how to resolve questions about Tehran’s disputed nuclear program, the ISNA news agency quoted an Ir
anian official as saying on Saturday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency last week said Iran had invited it to send a team after Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, agreed a “plan of action” for clearing up issues with IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei.
“A team consisting of the agency’s deputy and some officials? will come to Tehran to study a working plan that will answer all the remaining issues in regard to Iran’s nuclear program,” Iran’s IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told ISNA.
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