“THE TIMES”, THEY ARE “A CHANGING”
October 2, 2013
http://www.tribulationperiod,com/
10 Following Excerpts describe current Mid-East Events
Which will produce the situation AFTER Obama leaves Office
Begin Series of Excerpts from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
THE CURRENT MIDDLE EAST EVENTS ON OCTOBER 1, 2013!
Daily Alerts on October 1, 2013
Begin Alert Excerpt 1 – White House
President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu Meet in Washington
After meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, President Obama said: “It is imperative that Iran not possess a nuclear weapon. That is important for American security; it is important for Israeli security; it’s important for world security….And given the statements and actions from the Iranian regime in the past – the threats against Israel, the acts against Israel – it is absolutely clear that words are not sufficient, that we have to have actions that give the international community confidence that, in fact, they are meeting their international obligations fully, and that they are not in a position to have a nuclear weapon.”
“We enter into these negotiations [with Iran] very clear-eyed. They will not be easy. And anything that we do will require the highest standards of verification….We take no options off the table, including military options, in terms of making sure that we do not have nuclear weapons in Iran that would destabilize the region and potentially threaten the United States of America.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “The most important challenge is preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. I appreciate…the statement you made that Iran’s conciliatory words have to be matched by real actions – transparent, verifiable, meaningful actions. Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction. So for Israel, the ultimate test of a future agreement with Iran is whether or not Iran dismantles its military nuclear program.” (White House)
Begin Alert Excerpt 2 – Jerusalem Post
A Carefully Crafted U.S.-Israel Message on Iran – Herb Keinon
What emerged from the brief joint appearance by President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu after Monday’s meeting was an obvious effort to publicly play down any differences about Iran. Obama sent a message that the U.S. was well aware of what Netanyahu has been warning, that what was important were actions, not words, and that the U.S. would not be taken in by Rouhani’s “charm offensive.” Obama also stressed that “all options are still on the table” – alluding to the option of a military strike if Iran does not back down.
Netanyahu did not come out against a U.S.-Iranian dialogue, and expressed his appreciation for the work that has been done to place the sanctions regime on Iran. The message that Obama and Netanyahu wanted Tehran to hear was that on Iran’s nuclear issue, the U.S. and Israel remain on the same page. (Jerusalem Post)
Iran Staggers as Sanctions Hit Economy
Begin Alert Excerpt 3 – New York Times
Thomas Erdbrink
For years, Iran’s leaders have scoffed at Western economic sanctions. Now, as they seek to negotiate a deal on their nuclear program, the leaders are acknowledging that sanctions, particularly those applied in 2010 on international financial transactions, are creating a hard-currency shortage that is bringing the country’s economy to its knees. Iran news outlets have reported that the government owes billions of dollars to private contractors, banks and municipalities. Because of the sanctions, oil sales, which account for 80% of the government’s revenue, have been cut in half. While Iran’s foreign exchange reserves had shrunk to $80 billion by mid-2013, 3/4 of that amount is tied up in escrow accounts in countries that buy Iranian oil – the result of an American sanctions law that took effect in February. Under that law, the money can be spent only to buy products from those countries. Even gaining access to the remaining $20 billion is difficult because of Iran’s expulsion from the global banking network known as Swift. (New York Times)
Begin Alert Excerpt 4 – Israel Hayom
Iranian Spy Was a Quds Force Professional
Yoav Limor
The Iranian spy apprehended in Israel on Sept. 11, Ali Mansouri, was a quality asset – an Iranian national with a foreign passport. He was a professional who underwent prolonged training (more than a year) that included various methods of intelligence gathering, with an emphasis on photography. He was very careful to keep his identities and passports separate (using his Belgian passport exclusively to enter Israel and travel in Europe and his Iranian passport for visits to Iran).
The Iranians sent Mansouri on well-planned missions, leading Israel to believe that he was not the only agent sent by Iran to spy on Israel. He was sent by the Quds Force – the extraterritorial operational arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that operates terror networks and orchestrates attacks in Argentina, Thailand, India and elsewhere. Thus it stands to reason that when the Quds Force sends a spy on a mission, the intelligence gathered will ultimately be used to perpetrate a terror attack. (Israel Hayom)
Begin Alert Excerpt 5 – Bloomberg and Times of Israel
Netanyahu Calls on U.S. Senators to Keep Up Pressure on Iran
Lazar Berman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday, thanking them for their support for sanctioning Iran and urging them to continue to pressure the Islamic Republic. He said it was the sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table. (Times of Israel)
Begin Alert Excerpt 6 – Bloomberg
Don’t Be Fooled by Iran’s Charming New Leader
Jeffrey Goldberg
Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran, is a moderate only in comparison to his predecessor, the unhinged Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Rouhani has been a superior soldier for Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and an anti-American propagandist for much of his professional life. (Rouhani blamed 9/11 on the “wrongs and mistakes of American policies,” and argued that the U.S. Air Force shot down Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania.) There’s no reason to think that Rouhani, who is acting on Khamenei’s behalf, is ready to shut down his country’s nuclear program.
In 2007, Rouhani said, “We should talk carefully so as not to provoke the enemy, we should not give them any excuses.” Who is the enemy? The U.S. is the enemy. Rouhani wrote in 2003: “The fundamental principle in Iran’s relations with America – our entire focus – is national strength. Strength in politics, culture, economics, and defense – especially in the field of advanced technology – is the basis for the preservation and overall development of the System, and will force the enemy to surrender.” (Bloomberg)
Begin Alert Excerpt 7 – Washington Institute
Who Is Hassan Rouhani?
Steven Ditto
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
Begin Alert Excerpt 8 – Forbes
Iran, the UN’s New Authority on Nuclear Disarmament
Claudia Rosett
On Sept. 26, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani addressed the UN’s first ever High Level Meeting of the General Assembly on Nuclear Disarmament, which showcased Iran not as a terror-sponsoring UN-sanctioned nuclear-proliferating regime, but as an authority on ridding the world of nuclear weapons. The Non-Aligned Movement, which includes 119 of the UN’s 193 member states and which initiated the meeting, is currently chaired by Iran. In other words, this UN nuclear conclave, presenting Iran not as a proliferator but as a patron of nuclear Disarmament, was choreographed by Iran itself.
Iran is running for the post of rapporteur for the General Assembly’s main committee on Disarmament and International Security. Thanks to UN backroom politics, Iran is the only candidate. That’s how it works at the UN. The U.S. pays the bills, Iran plays the system, and the clock ticks toward the Iranian bomb. The writer is journalist-in-residence with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (Forbes)
Begin Alert Excerpt 9 – UK Economist
Talking to Tehran: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Given Iran’s long history of evasiveness on the nuclear issue, the suspicion is that it is merely buying time for its centrifuges. Looming in the background is the precedent of North Korea, which agreed on a disarmament deal with America in 2005, then reneged on it and has now become a nuclear power.
Obama’s terms therefore should focus on denying Iran the possibility of a swift “breakout” to unveiling a bomb. That means forcing it to stop enriching uranium beyond 20% (and shipping its existing stockpile of material above that level to a third party). Ideally it would suspend all enrichment activity at its Fordo facility, which is buried deep in the bowels of a mountain (and thus hard to attack) and delay commissioning the Arak nuclear reactor, due to come online next year, which could give the regime an alternative plutonium route to a bomb. (Economist-UK)
Begin Alert Excerpt 10 – Foreign Policy
The Mullahs Aren’t Going to Charm Anyone for Very Long
Aaron David Miller
(Foreign Policy)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already expressed serious concern about wily Iranian mullahs bearing gifts. Either there will be a very good deal that will take care of both U.S. and Israeli concerns on the nuclear issue, or there will be no deal at all. Here’s why.
In his recent address to the UN General Assembly, the president identified two key foreign policy priorities in his second term: Iran and the Palestinians. Israel sits at the nexus of both. Managing, let alone resolving, those issues requires close understandings with Israel. To put it more bluntly, if Obama is to have any hope of avoiding war with Iran on the nuclear issue, he will have to keep Israel close.
The mullahs aren’t going to charm anyone for very long, let alone transform public attitudes in Israel or America, without significant and tangible deliverables. And that’s not going to happen quickly or easily given the withholding nature of the Supreme Leader.
The alert level on the Iranian charm offensive is incredibly high, and Obama is likely to be cautious and risk averse when it comes to the nuclear issue. Besides, there’s no issue that unites Congress like its mistrust of Iran.
The writer is vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
FOLLOWING MIDDLE EVENTS WILL START AFTER PRESIDENT OBAMA DEPARTS OFFICE!
Daniel 7:24-27 – 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. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. [26] But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. [27] And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
THE SUNNI & SHITE ANTICHRIST APPEAR BEFORE 7TH RUMP
12th Imam – Muhammad al-Mahdi (ANTICHRIST)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
According to Twelver Shi’as Imam Hujjat al-Mahdī (or Hujjat ibn Hasan ibn Ali) is the twelfth Imam and the Mahdi, the ultimate savior of humankind. Other Shi’a schools adhere to different Imam successions and do not, along with Sunnis, consider ibn-Al-Hassan the Mahdi. Twelver Shi’as believe that Mahdi was born in 868 and has been hidden by God (referred to as the Occultation) to later emerge to fulfill his mission.
Birth and early life according to Twelver Shi’a
Twelver Shi’as believe that Mahdi was born in 868 AD as Hujjat ibn Hasan ibn Ali. His mother, Narjis (Melika), was a Byzantine princess who pretended to be a slave so that she might travel from her kingdom to Arabia. His father, Hasan al-Askari, is believed to have been the eleventh and penultimate Shi’a Imam. Shi’as believe that his birth was kept a secret due to the persecution that the Shi’a were facing during this time at the hands of Al-Mu’tamid, the Abbasid Caliph.
To support Mahdi’s claim, Twelver Shi’as quote the following Hadith: “I and `Ali are the fathers of this nation; whoever knows us very well also knows Allah, and whoever denies us also denies Allah, the Unique, the Mighty. And from `Ali’s descendants are my grandsons al¬-Hasan and al-¬Husayn, who are the masters of the youths of Paradise, and from al-¬Husayn’s descendants shall be nine: whoever obeys them obeys me, and whoever disobeys them also disobeys me; the ninth among them is their Qa’im and Mahdi.” (These Hadiths are not recognized as authentic by Sunnis)
The eleventh Shi’a Imam Hasan al-Askari died on 1 January 874 AD (8th Rabi’ al-awwal, 260 AH) and since that day, his son Mahdi is believed by Shi’as to be the Imam, appointed by God, to lead the believers of the era. The most popular account of al-Mahdi in Shi’a literature is taken from his father’s funeral. It is reported that as the funeral prayer was about to begin, al-Mahdi’s uncle, Jafar ibn Ali approached to lead the prayers. However, al-Mahdi approached and commanded, “Move aside, uncle; only an Imam can lead the funeral prayer of an Imam.” Jafar moved aside, and the five-year-old child led the funeral prayer for his father. It is reported that it was at this very moment that al-Mahdi disappeared and went into ghaybat, or occultation.
Significance of the Twelfth Imam
Some hadith indicate significance to the twelfth generation of descendants of the prophet Muhammad.
A hadith from the Shi’a text (Kitab Al-Kafi) containing a conversation between the first Shia Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib and a man named al-Asbagh ibn Nubata, as well as a Hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim in which Muhammad speaks of Twelve Successors.
From Sahih Bukhari:
Narrated Jabir bin Samura: I heard Muhammad saying, “There will be twelve Muslim rulers (who will rule all the Islamic world).” He then said a sentence which I did not hear. My father said, “All of them (those rulers) will be from Quraish.”
In a hadith widely regarded as authentic, Muhammad said,
Even if the entire duration of the world’s existence has already been exhausted and only one day is left before the Day of Judgment, God will expand that day to such a length of time, as to accommodate the kingdom of a person out of Ahl al-Bayt who will be called by my name. He will then fill the Earth with peace and justice as it will have been filled with injustice and tyranny before then.
The Occultation
Main article: The Occultation
Shi’as believe that, for various reasons, God concealed the twelfth and current Shi’a Imam, al-Mahdi, from humankind.
The period of occultation (ghaybat) is believed to consist of two parts:
Ghaybat al-Sughra or Minor Occultation (874-939) is the shorter of the two periods, during which deputies of the Imam maintained communication to the rest of the world.
Ghaybat al-Kubra or Major Occultation began 939 and is believed to continue until a time decided by God, when the Mahdi will reappear to bring absolute justice to the world.
Minor Occultation
Main article: Minor Occultation
During the Minor Occultation (Ghaybat al-Sughra), it is believed that al-Mahdi maintained contact with his followers via deputies (Arab. an-nuwāb al-arbaʕa). They represented him and acted as agents between him and his followers.
Reappearance
Twelver Shi’as cite various references from the Qur’an and reports, or Hadith, from Mahdi and the twelve Shi’a Imams with regard to the reappearance of al-Mahdi who would, in accordance with God’s command, bring justice and peace to the world by establishing Islam throughout the world.
Mahdi is reported to have said:
“During the last times, my people will be afflicted with terrible and unprecedented calamities and misfortunes from their rulers, so much so that this vast earth will appear small to them. Persecution and injustice will engulf the earth. The believers will find no shelter to seek refuge from these tortures and injustices. At such a time, God will raise from my progeny a man who will establish peace and justice on this earth in the same way as it had been filled with injustice and distress.”
Shi’as believe that al-Mahdi will reappear when the world has fallen into chaos and civil war emerges between the human race for no reason. At this time, it is believed, half of the true believers will ride from Yemen carrying white flags to Mecca, while the other half will ride from Karbala, in Iraq, carrying black flags to Mecca. At this time, al-Mahdi will come wielding God’s Sword, the Blade of Evil’s Bane, Zulfiqar (Ar, the Double-Bladed
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