Syria’s Wrong Choice Happiness will One Day bring Sadness!
August 27, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The path chosen by Syria is leading toward a showdown in the Middle East, and the clock is ticking.
Please read Archive Special Prophecy Update Number 161C before reading the excellent article from MSNBC which follows it.
SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 161C
March 5, 2004
Syria Makes a Very Bad Choice
I have always believed and taught that the most likely part of the old Roman Empire, which would foster the rise of the Antichrist, would be Syria. Syria has been hanging suspended between two choices: (1) Turn toward the United States in order to avoid sanctions, and to gain support from the western world in a war on terror, or, (2) Turn toward Iran to make an alliance and continue to give support to all the terrorist groups. On February 28 Syria apparently made its choice. The Iranian Defense Minister, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, came to Damascus and signed a new military pact with the Syrian Defense Minister, General Mustufa Tias. I believe this is a clear sign that President Assad has made his choice to put his trust in an Iran-Syria Axis to protect his administration from a coup by terrorist groups in his own country. President Assad has been active recently in communications with Washington to see what they would give him in the way of security if he should choose to give up sponsoring the many terrorist group offices in Syria, and Hizbollah in Lebanon. Really, he did not have much of a choice. Had he turned pro-west and resisted the terrorist groups, his regime would have been overthrown in a matter of weeks.
Syria’s new military pact with Iran likely contains an Iranian promise to invest in additional long range Scud-C missiles, now in mass production at Syria’s underground missile facility near Hamah, which is somewhat ironic in that the northern extent of Israel’s territory, after it defeats Syria at the end of the tribulation period, will extend to Hamah. The biblical name for Hamah is Hamath.
Ezekiel 47:17 – And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side.
Genesis 15:18 – In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Ezekiel 47:19 – And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea.
And this is the south side southward.
If you want to envision the size of the Abrahamic Land Grant promised to the descendants of Abraham through Jacob (Israel), then go southwest from the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip along the coastline of the Mediterranean 35 miles and place a point on the shoreline. Then draw a line directly east from that point until you hit the Euphrates River of Iraq. That is the southern border of the land God promised to the seed of Abraham through his grandson, the man whom God renamed Israel, the man Jacob, the son of Isaac, the promised seed God gave through Sarah. The northern border of the l and grant may be visualized by finding Hamah or Hama in north central Syria,
and then drawing an east-west line through it, which ends on the Mediterranean to the west, and on the Euphrates River to the east. This is the northern border of Abraham’s God given Land Grant. As you can see, this is a very large tract of land, 95 percent of which is occupied by descendants of Abraham through Ishmael’s twelve sons, the six sons of Abraham by Keturah, and Moab and Ammon, the two sons of Abraham’s nephew Lot by his own daughters. They are identified generally as Arabs, and some 95 percent of them are of the Islamic faith. Since they believe that the promises of God come through Abraham’s son Ishmael through Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaiden, you can see the basic reason for the hatred between Arabs and Jews that has only intensified with the passage of the centuries (See Prophecy Updates 67 and 68 in the Archives).
I am confident that the new military pact will undoubtedly transfer the information necessary for the manufacture of the advanced Shihab-3 missile in Syria, as well as the financing for greater production of long-range artillery and ammunition.
The United States and Europe wanted Syria to follow Libya’s lead, but Bashar Assad was really in no political position to do so without being overthrown by the terrorist elements in his own country. There were four things the United States wanted Syria to give up.
(1) Scrap your long-range missile program.
(2) Scrap your WMD program.
(3) Drive all the terrorist groups out of Syria.
(4) Stop supporting Hizbollah in Lebanon.
I feel confident it was a choice Bashar Assad simply could not make. Iran and Syria are of the same mind on these four issues. Had Syria chosen to do those four things, it would have cut Iran’s flow of weaponry and the movement of terrorists to Hizbollah. Syria was left without any military backup with the fall of Iraq, so Assad has chosen to shore up and expand its existing ties with Iran, and create new military ties with them for a joint defense against the west. The strong showing by the radical Shiite hardliners in Iran’s elections last month was a strong element that Assad considered in making his choice. Iranian Shiites will continue to have a direct pipeline via Damascus airport for massive shipments of military hardware to the large Hizbollah terrorist army, which it has supported in southern Lebanon for years, as have the Syrians.
Rest assured that Israel has three very definite targets on its mind for the possibility of future air strikes, namely, the Syrian underground and surface facilities near Hamah, the Iranian nuclear complex centered ten miles south of Bushehr, and selected weapons supply depots in southern Lebanon (See Prophecy Update 160A). By no stretch of the imagination will Iraq remain a democracy any great length of time after the election of a new government. It will take less than two years after Iraqi elections for most of Iraq to become an Islamic Republic.
And, when it does, there will be a military Islamic union stretching from Iran to Lebanon through Iraq and Syria.
Contrary to today’s popular belief, the antichrist will not come out of Europe, but out of the area that includes Syria, Lebanon, and northern Iraq (See Special Prophecy Update 74B and Whole Numbered Prophecy Updates 62 to 69).
And, contrary to today’s popular belief, the 10 toes of Daniel’s statue and the 10 horns on his fourth beast, which are the same 10 nations that will make up the coalition of nations that attack Israel in the last days, will not come out of Europe, but out of the southern half of the old Roman Empire, which included lands from Morocco to Iran, and as far north as Turkey (See Prophecy Updates 54 and 78).
Daniel 2:42 – And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Daniel 7:24 – And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
Revelation 17:12,13 – And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
As a former USAF Military Synoptic Analyst with the NSA, I can attest that the following article by Lt. Colonel Rick Francona is On Target.
Begin MSNBC Article
Syria and Iran need to rethink their choices
Francona: Both countries must become responsive to diplomacy
MILITARY ANALYSIS
By Lt.
Col. Rick Francona
Military analyst
MSNBC
Updated: 5:13 p.m. CT Aug 23, 2007
A quick glance at the map of the Middle East and the changes in the geopolitical landscape since the events of September 11, 2001, shows that Iran and Syria have been almost surrounded by states now friendly to the United States and the West.
However, Iraq sits in between these two pariah – like state allies.
Both are involved in the support, either tacit or outright, of groups killing American troops.
Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited the Islamic Republic of Iran, where he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While this meeting was taking place, American forces were chasing members of Iranian elite special operations units in Iraq. They are suspected of funding, training and equipping Shia militias who have American blood on their hands. Not a week later, al-Maliki shows up in Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
For al-Maliki, it may have been a somewhat of a reunion, after he was sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein in 1980, al-Maliki sought refuge in Iran and later Syria, so he has history with both regimes.
Just as Ahmadinejad denied any involvement with militias in Iraq, al-Assad claimed that he was doing all he could to stop the flow of men and weapons across the Syrian border into Iraq. He claimed that the border was porous and impossible to completely control.
I will take exception to the Syrian president’s claims. I served in Syria as a military attaché and it was my job to be aware of the security situation in the country. I made numerous trips to the Iraq border area although it was difficult to get anywhere near it without the consent of the Syrian government. Regardless of al-Assad’s claims, Syria is a police state in which virtually everything that happens there is done with regime knowledge and acquiescence. The very thought that al-Qaida recruits or arms are entering Syria and crossing into Iraq without the knowledge and approval of the Syrian government — and that means al-Assad himself — is ludicrous.
Al-Assad’s other remarks are equally ludicrous. His prime minister, who is only a mouthpiece since no one serves or speaks without the consent of al-Assad, uttered the same refrain we have heard before claiming that the withdrawal of American forces is the solution to the problem. He demanded a timetable for that withdrawal. In reality, the withdrawal of American forces would give Syria and its primary ally, Iran, the roles of primary power brokers in Iraq. The timetable would tell the al-Qaida fighters in the west and the Shia militias in Baghdad and the south just how long they have to wait for victory.
Which country is calling the shots?
Does anyone think that al-Assad has come up with this on his own? The strategy for Syria’s position and demands was not formulated in Damascus; it was dictated in Tehran.
Iran is calling the shots here. Without Iranian support, the al-Assad regime would die on the vine. Of course, Syria has its value to Iran. Without access to Syria, Iran would be hard-pressed to support its clients -– Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
Al-Maliki’s visit to Damascus only bolsters Syria’s position. Al-Maliki coming as an apparent supplicant to al-Assad gives Syria, and by extension Iran, legitimacy as a power broker in the region. Al-Maliki also made the point that he was not visiting to deliver a message from the United States.
He was only visiting to speak to a fellow Arab leader. Granted, al-Maliki has to live in the neighborhood, but this gesture only convinces al-Assad he has the upper hand.
Al-Assad believes Syrian influence in the region is on the rise. It has been instrumental in resupplying Hezbollah; has regained much of its lost influence in Lebanon after being forced to pull out its troops after almost three decades; and now is being granted the status of a key player in what happens in Iraq.
Syria is part of the problem, not
the solution. Maybe it’s about time we spoke to Syria directly and frankly, it is one of the recommendations
of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group. We have an embassy in Damascus, although the ambassador has been recalled since early 2005 in the aftermath of Syrian complicity in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minster Rafiiq al-Hariri.
I suggest we tell Syria the same thing we should be telling the Iranians: your actions are responsible for the deaths of American troops. If it continues, you will pay a price. Of course, if we say it, we have to mean it.
Does that sound like a threat? Well, in all my dealings with the Syrians, I have found that they understand threats – they’re not real responsive to diplomacy.
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