BIRDS OF A FEATHER – A Syrian Sparrow and a Persian Peacock!
April 20, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.con/
I have watched Bashar Assad, the President of Syria, slowly come under the umbrella of
Iranian control for several years. I reported the takeover by Iranian influence in several previous Blogs and two or three Archive Prophecy Updates. What follows in this Blog are some of the highlights of the Iranian influence growth in Syria over the last four years.
Bashar Assad has swallowed the Iranian Bait – Hook, Line and Sinker!
November 11, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
It might be in order to discuss the “big four” that govern in Syria today. Hafez al-Assad, the strong man dictator over Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000, had four children: three sons, Basil, Bashar, and Maher; and one daughter, Bushra. The soap opera beg ins with Bushra fall
ing in love with a divorced man with five children, one Asef Shawkat. The plot thickens as both her father Hafez and older brother Basil violently oppose her marrying Asef. The serial saddens as Basil dies in a vehicle accident l
inked to drug traffic in Lebanon.
And, after his death in 1994, Bushra and Asef elope, and Hafez does not have him killed. He may be the only man who ever stood up to Hafez and was not thrown into prison or killed. The couple stayed together, and Asef Shawket became second in power only to Hafez. When the soap opera patriarch Hafez died in 1971, the power shifting began among the star players, and developed into the tight little circle of the four Assad guild players Bashar, Asef, Bushra, and Maher. There is a growing question in Syria as to who really makes most of the decisions in government, Bashar or his brother-in-law Asef.
The spirit of the Islamic Mahda Messiah is sweeping through Islam, and the fire of Jihad is being fueled by it. The Shiites are gaining religious and political footholds in Syria, which I believe will eventually lead to the downfall of Bashar Assad. The man who will replace him is the one in whom I am most interested. Things are moving rapidly in the Middle East and some changes will be abrupt and surprising.
Begin IRMA Article
Iran buying ‘Whole Villages’ of Converts in Syria; Assad gives ‘Cart Blance’
IRMA – Independent Review and Media Analysis
Geostrategy-Direct, www.geostrategy-direct.com,
November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON – Iran is moving in on Syria to the point of encouraging Alawis and Sunnis to convert to Shi’ite Islam.
Syrian opposition sources said the regime of President Bashar Assad has given Iran “carte blanche” in Syria. Unlike his late father, Bashar has allowed Iranian clerics to spread the Shi’ite religion in Syria.
“Syrians have been observing over the last year a dangerous phenomena mostly witnessed by an alarming number of non-Shia turning to Khomeini-style Shia in return for financial rewards,” the opposition Reform Party of Syria stated. “Whole villages and urban areas are adopting the Hizbullah model whereby clinics, schools and social services are provided by Iran in return for Syrians to convert to Shi’ism.”
In August 2006, RPS stated, Iran opened two centers in the Syrian port of Latakia.
The centers, which teach Farsi, have been converting Sunni Muslims.
“Assad is logically calculating that if Hizbullah, with its 15,000 fighters and a God-like following of its figurehead Sheik [Hassan] Nasrallah, can achieve with $100 million a year the military prowess it exhibited against Israel then why not turn all of Syria into a larger Hizbullah laboratory in the hope of attaining the same results?” the Syrian opposition party stated.
Sunnis comprise 70 percent of Syria.
About 11 percent of the country consists of the ruling Alawite community, with the remainder Christians and Druze.
Opposition sources said the spread of Shia in Iran has angered many Sunnis, particularly those aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. Sunni clerics envision a backlash against Iran and its representatives.
“Many [Sunni clerics] have voiced the following logic: We see the next confrontation in the Middle East along the l
ines of Israel vs. Iran and we have no choice but to stand by Israel to protect our religion,” RPS stated.
“This logic emanates from the fact that no Sunni Arab country has the military competence to stand-up to the Iran-Syria-Hizbullah axis and also because Israel, unlike Iran, is not interested in converting Sunni Muslims,” it said.
IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis Ends
On January 21, 2006 I pointed out that Assad had made the wrong choice two years before that on February 28, 2004, and it was no longer reversible.
Begin Article
Bashar Assad Made the Wrong Choice Two Years Ago!
January 21, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The last two BLOGS have been about the two day “terror summit” just finished in Damascus between the Syrian and Iranian Presidents. The die was cast for this summit almost two years ago.
Bashar Assad made the Wrong Choice Two Years ago as we reported in Special Prophecy Update Number 161C, titled, “Syria Makes a Very Bad Choice!” During the Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s Thursday and Friday visit to Syria, he and Syrian President Bashar Assad formed a “front” to oppose what Ahmadinejad identified as world “arrogance and domination.” Once Assad made his choice two years ago I knew it was all over – there would be no second chance. He is now up a creek and Iran is not a trustworthy paddle. He made his choice on February 28, 2004 to cast his lot with Iran rather than with the United States. The following excerpts are from Special Prophecy Number 161C.
BEGIN EXCERPTS
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.
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 be
ing 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.
During Ahmadinejad’s visit Syria expressed support for Iran’s nuclear right to have nuclear weapons.
Syria and Iran also demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign occupation forces from Iraq.
END EXCERPTS FROM PROPHECY UPDATE 161C
Begin Latest Reuters Article
Iranian minister in Syria for talks on Iraq
Tue 17 Apr 2007 4:40 PM ET
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
DAMASCUS, April 17 (Reuters)
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moualem on Tuesday to coordinate policy on Iraq ahead of an international meeting next month to discuss the conflict there.
“Iraq is in extraordinary circumstances and we hope that neighbouring countries continue to do their best for security and stability there,” Mottaki told reporters after a late meeting with Moualem at the Foreign Ministry.
“We have been in touch about Iraq and there is agreement to keep up dialogue between us,” said Mottaki, who arrived in the Syrian capital after holding similar discussions in Turkey.
Egypt will host a high-level meeting of a group of countries that includes Syria, Turkey and the United States in the first week of May to discuss how to stop the violence in Iraq. The conference is a follow-up to one in Baghdad in March.
Mottaki said Iran, which was present at the Baghdad conference, had not yet decided whether to attend.
“We are studying the issue and there is still plenty of time to take a decision,” he said.
An Iranian newspaper reported last week that Iran might not take part if U.S. forces do not release five Iranians they are holding in Iraq.
The United States accuses Iran and Syria of furthering instability in Iraq, but the Baker-Hamilton panel in December recommended that Washington talk with the two countries about stopping the violence.
FEARS OF IRAN
During a meeting between President Bashar al-Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran in February, the two leaders stressed that the identity of Iraq was Arab, to allay fears in the region of expanding Iranian influence there.
Syria has been reinforcing links with Iran as the two countries come under pressure from Washington. Senior U.S. politicians who visited Damascus lately have urged Assad to distance himself from Tehran.
Western diplomats said Assad had told visiting delegations that U.S. pressure left him with little choice but to make a closer alliance with Iran, but that Syria was ready
to help end the violence in Iraq.
Washington says Syria is allowing anti-U.S. fighters to cross from its border into Iraq. Syria denies helping the rebels and says a stable Iraq is in its interest.
A fiercely anti-American newspaper published in Damascus by Iraqi Member of Parliament Mishaan al-Jubouri was recently shut down and senior Iraqi officials have been visiting Damascus.
“There has been less movement and supply across the border from Syria,” one diplomat said. “This may be more due to the fact that the insurgents are becoming self-sufficient than anything Syria is doing.”
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