Recent posts have focused on the internal chaos that is growing in both Egypt and Turkey; however, the Syrian civil war is threatening to spill over into neighboring nations and become a much wider war. This post will review and update the most pressing threats.
Egypt’s slide into economic ruin continues. A previous post noted that Egypt’s is now rated a very dangerous tourist destination. In what I think is an incredible example of the Muslim Brotherhood’s inability to govern Egypt, Egypt’s leader just appointed as governor of the critical tourist district of Luxor an individual who was a part of a terrorist group who once killed 58 tourists in a mass murder/terrorism attack in Luxor! (first link). Egyptians dependent on tourism are understandably furious and are gathering many millions of signatures in Egypt to force new elections (second link). Turkey’s internal situation remains unstable, but Prime Minister Erdogan seems in no danger of losing his position. The Turkish people have, however, made it clear to him that they want no part of sharia law or further Islamist measures.
Syria’s civil war is already drawing in foreign fighters on both sides of the civil war, threatening to have it spark into a wider regional conflict. A previous post cited a report that Hezbollah has sent at least 7,000 fighters to shore up the Assad regime and take back territory from the rebels. The British media reports that Iran is sending 4,000 of its troops to fight in Assad’s defense (third link), and the Argentine media reports that Iraqi Shiites are also now fighting in Syria to keep Assad in power (fourth link). This last report indicates the Iraqi Shiite central government is now supporting Assad behind the scenes.
On the other hand, the Syrian rebels have been backed by the Sunni nations of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others. The fifth link reports that large supplies of weaponry from Khaddafy’s fallen Libyan regime are being shipped to the Syrian rebels. The sixth link contains an analysis that the Sunni-Shiite conflict raging in Syria is becoming a wider Sunni vs. Shiite war involving the entire Mideast. Shiite vs. Sunni fighting has erupted in Iraq and Lebanon. The seventh link reports that Sunnis are now shelling Hezbollah positions in Lebanon after Hezbollah intervened to fight against the Sunni rebels in Syria. There is also a report that “waves of Egyptians” from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Jidahist wing are now entering Syria to fight on the side of the rebels (eighth link), making the Egyptian nation an increasingly involved ally of the Sunni Syrian rebels even as the Iraqi Shiite militias fighting for Assad have made the Iraqi central government more of an ally of Assad. The entire Mideast is not far from having a single spark engulf the entire region in a Sunni vs. Shiite war. Indeed, at the rate of escalating involvement by other nations in the Syrian civil war, can such an outcome even be prevented?
The USA is moving toward arming the Syrian rebels and even US Senator John McCain arranged an unexpected meeting with the Syrian rebel factions. However, given the many reports of Al Queda and extreme Islamists factions within the eclectic Syrian rebel movement, how can the USA ensure that its weapons do not fall into the hands of Al Queda and Islamist factions who will use those weapons vs. the USA in future terrorist attacks?
Jordan, a Sunni nation which is already sheltering hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, is at risk of becoming engaged in the fighting. The ninth link and tenth link report that many nations recently conducted military exercises in Jordan to demonstrate their support for the Jordanian regime. The USA was a part of that exercise and is leaving F-16s and Patriot air-defense batteries in Jordan after the exercise to keep a US military presence in Jordan to defend it. The twelfth link reports that even the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is injecting itself into Jordan’s internal affairs, expressing its belief that Jordan is spending too much money on its air force and not enough on its ground forces.
And now, Iran held elections which elected a new president who is misleadingly called a “moderate.” The new president of Iran is hardly a moderate, as link eleven and link twelve confirm. He will likely be more moderate in his rhetoric than his predecessor, but the real power in Iran remains with the supreme Ayatollahs, not the president. Indeed, the new Iranian president, as I learned on a BBC-TV report aired on the American PBS network, was only allowed on the ballot by the Ayatollahs because they knew he would be loyal to them and do their bidding. Several real “moderates” were not even allowed on the ballot by the Ayatollahs. Expect changes in rhetoric from Iran’s new leader, but do not expect any changes in substance.
These links contain a lot of information to digest, but I urge you to read them. When you do so, you will see how close the entire Mideast is to erupting in open Sunni vs. Shiite warfare. This post hasn’t even discussed the new dangers posed to the Israelis by the shifting alliances and destabilizing regimes within the Islamic nations of the region.
Biblically, we are still witnessing the rearrangement of nations and regions within nations to place them in the final alliances that will fulfill the Ezekiel 38 prophecies about the Gog-Magog alliance. Since Ezekiel 38:5 lists Persia, Libya and Cush (“Ethiopia” in the KJV) as being in the Gog-Magog alliance, we can know that all nations allied to Iran (“Persia”) will be in the Russian-Chinese (“Gog-Magog”) bloc as will many North Africans. The term “Cush” applies to the Pakistani-Afghanistani-Taliban region where anti-American feelings are already rampant. This region contains the Hindu Kush mountains where the name of Cush is most prominent today. It seems inevitable that this entire region will eventually be lost to the western alliance. However, there is no mention that the Sunni Arabs (Ishmael) or the Sunni Turks (Edom) will be part of the Gog-Magog alliance.
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http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/06/17/report-jordans-focus-on-air-force-increasing-its-vulnerability/
