NoteBookLM AI-podcast on my article:

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran under the code names Operation Roaring Lion and Operation Epic Fury. On the first day of the operation—aimed at toppling Iran’s theocratic government—high-ranking officials of the regime were killed in Israeli airstrikes, including the regime’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The war follows more than two years of Iranian aggression that began with the October 7 terrorist attacks and escalated into several Iranian air assaults on Israel using drones and ballistic missiles as part of the Gaza war.

In recent months, Iran’s government has also killed tens of thousands of its own brave protesters who demanded that the government be taken back from their Shiite Islamist oppressors. The killing of the Ayatollah led many Iranians around the world to dance in celebration, and in Tehran citizens have been shouting thanks to Benjamin Netanyahu from the balconies of apartment buildings. At the moment of writing this, the question no longer seems to be whether Iran’s terror regime will collapse, but when it will happen.

Although Russia is one of Iran’s most important geopolitical allies, the war in Ukraine has already dragged Putin into a quagmire, and Russia does not have the resources to open a new front—or even the courage to do so—because this would lead directly to an armed confrontation with the United States and thus potentially to nuclear war. The second dictator of the “Axis of Evil”—Iraq, Iran, and North Korea—defined by the Bush administration in 2002 has now fallen, almost 23 years after the fall of Saddam’s regime, and his evil regime may soon follow.

From the time of the Iraq War there exists a pro-Bush political cartoon about the Axis of Evil in which the leaders of Syria, Iran, Cuba, and North Korea are gathered around a negotiating table, while in the place of Iraq’s leader there is only a smoking bomb. Seeing this, the predecessor of North Korea’s current leader remarks: “All right, Mr. Bush, we are listening now.” The cartoon’s idea turned out to be quite accurate, because after the Iraq War Libya’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi abandoned his own stockpile of weapons of mass destruction out of fear of what had happened to Saddam’s Iraq.

One often hears the repeated claim that Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction were a lie used by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq War. It is, however, a historical fact that Saddam possessed a stockpile of chemical weapons already in the 1980s and used them against the Kurds during the Iran–Iraq War. Although Saddam gave up his weapons of mass destruction in the 1990s under the supervision of international inspectors, he himself complicated the inspectors’ work while simultaneously maintaining the myth of remaining weapons of mass destruction because they served as an effective deterrent against his enemies.

When Gaddafi’s regime was overthrown in the Libyan civil war of 2011—which the West supported and in which it intervened militarily—it sent a message to both North Korea and Iran that without weapons of mass destruction their regimes would suffer the same fate as Saddam’s Iraq and Gaddafi’s Libya. For this reason Kim Jong-un, whom Trump mocked during the verbal escalation of 2017 as “Little Rocket Man,” launched his provocative nuclear missile tests during the Obama administration as a deterrent against the United States and its eastern allies. Iran’s nuclear program can be understood in the same historical light.

The use of weapons of mass destruction as a deterrent may have worked under Obama and Biden, but neither Kim Jong-un nor Ayatollah Khamenei took into account the rise of a “madman-style” leader like President Trump in the United States—one who is not afraid to use aggressive military rhetoric and threaten regime change if the enemies of the West do not begin behaving like civilized states. In 2017–2018 this rhetoric led Kim Jong-un to eventually agree to meet President Trump and begin negotiations on handing over North Korea’s nuclear weapons (although the rise of the weak President Biden later made it possible for the “Rocket Man” to restart his nuclear missile tests).

A nuclear-armed Iran ruled by religious fundamentalists might have been an even greater threat to world peace than North Korea, because according to the country’s Shiite clerics they are part of a great end-times drama that will lead to a global conflagration and the appearance of Mahdi, the messianic figure of Islamic eschatology. According to this belief, Iran’s government should hasten his arrival by destroying the two “Great Satans” standing in his way— the United States and Israel. Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy of the Trump administration, said in an interview with Fox News that before Operation Epic Fury Iran had been only weeks—even days—away from producing several nuclear bombs. According to Witkoff, “In the first meeting the Iranian negotiators openly told us that they possessed 460 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent and that they were aware it could be used to make 11 nuclear bombs.”

The attack against Iran therefore took place at the very last moment, because if the mullahs had already possessed nuclear weapons, a regime-change operation would have been far too risky. In that case, millions of Iranians would have had to be left at the mercy of their brutal regime, and the entire Middle East would have been placed under the shadow of a religious fanatic threatening the region with nuclear weapons. As usual, the left and the antisemitic woke right complain about America’s and Israel’s wars and about “violations of international law,” while completely ignoring how flagrantly Iran itself has violated international law and the UN’s human rights declarations. Moreover, the actions of the United States and Israel are fully consistent with international law, because Article 51 of the UN Charter authorizes self-defense. This clearly applies here, since Iran’s government has threatened Israel and the United States with destruction ever since 1979 and has armed terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, whose explicit goal is the destruction of the Jewish state.

Ten days after the October 7 terrorist attacks I predicted correctly on my blog that Israel’s war against Hamas would escalate into a broader Middle Eastern war that would eventually draw Iran into the conflict. I wrote on my blog in October 2023:

At the time of writing this, Israel is preparing an assault on northern Gaza by air, sea, and land and has already told Gaza’s civilians where to flee from the coming military operation. The conflict may soon expand across the entire Middle East, because Hamas, which governs Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon are both Iranian-funded and Iranian-controlled proxies through which the theocratic ruler of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, is already indirectly at war with Israel.

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said yesterday that an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza would force Iran to intervene, which would lead the two countries into open war. And because the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad—who barely survived his own civil war—is also an ally of the Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah axis, Israel could soon find itself fighting on three fronts: south, north, and east. This in turn could draw the superpowers into the conflict, because Israel is the United States’ most important ally in the Middle East, while Iran and Syria are allies of Putin’s Russia.

The Gaza war eventually expanded into a seven-front war. Gaza was not the only theater of the conflict: Israel fought simultaneously against Hezbollah in Lebanon, against the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in the West Bank, against the Houthis in Yemen, and against Shiite militias in Syria, Iraq, and Iran—including Iran’s own regime, which functioned as the central orchestrator behind all these groups. As in Israel’s previous wars in 1948, 1967, and 1973, it found itself surrounded on all sides by hostile nations or terrorist organizations in an existential struggle for survival. This fits well with the prophecy of Psalm 83:

“They say, ‘Come, let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name will be remembered no more.’ With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you: the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them; they have become a strong arm for the sons of Lot.”

This reads almost like a quotation from Hamas’s 1988 charter, which declares:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam obliterates it, just as it obliterated others before it” (martyr Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory)… The day the enemies usurp part of Muslim land, jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. When the Jews occupy Palestine, the banner of jihad must be raised. This requires spreading Islamic consciousness among the masses at the local, Arab, and Islamic levels. The spirit of jihad must be instilled in the heart of the nation so that they will confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.

The Philistia mentioned in Psalm 83 was located in David’s time precisely in the region of present-day Gaza. Tyre and Gebal were located in what is today southern Lebanon, from where Hezbollah has launched its rockets against Israel. Moab, Ammon, and the tents of Edom were located in the regions of today’s West Bank and Jordan. Assyria corresponds to modern Iraq and Syria, from where Iranian-backed Shiite militias joined Hamas in its war against Israel.

The Yemenis can be associated with the Ishmaelites mentioned in the psalm, although the Ishmaelites connect all these nations, since Arabs have been identified as the descendants of Ishmael according to a two-thousand-year-old tradition that Islam itself also affirms. In the War of Independence in 1948 and the Six-Day War in 1967—when Israel captured East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank—these same nations participated even more directly in attempts to destroy Israel than during the Gaza war. However, Psalm 83 does not mention Egypt, even though Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt was the single most significant participant in those earlier conflicts.

For this reason, the Middle Eastern war that began with the tragic events of October 7 may have fulfilled precisely the prophecy of Psalm 83, even though Iran itself is not mentioned there, despite being—alongside Hamas—the most significant actor in the conflict. This may be explained by the fact that Persia was not yet known in David’s time, since it rose to major military prominence only about five hundred years later during the reign of Cyrus the Great. I did not foresee that this war would ultimately lead to the destruction of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as now appears very likely. For example, in June 2019 I published an article titled: Trump ordered U.S. fighter jets to stand down at the last moment after Iran shot down a drone. Why I do not consider a U.S. war with Iran likely. What does the Bible predict about this?

I based my conclusion in that article on the prophecy of the Gog war in Ezekiel chapters 38–39, which mentions Persia—modern Iran—as an ally of Russia (Gog/Magog) against Israel when God brings it “from your place in the far north” onto the mountains of Israel, against “a people gathered from the nations.” Since Iran’s Islamist regime has been Israel’s arch-enemy since 1979, I did not consider it likely that it would be overthrown and replaced by a more pro-Western government supported by the United States and Israel before the Gog war, which has not yet taken place.

However, that may have been premature reasoning. Russia had been allied with Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya—which is also mentioned among Gog’s allies in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. 38:5)—and it opposed the Western (British-French led) military intervention triggered by the Arab Spring in 2011 to overthrow Gaddafi. Yet despite this, Putin managed to rebuild Russia’s relations with post-civil-war Libya, and therefore Khalifa Haftar, Putin’s ally, now controls most of the war-torn country.

Syria developed differently. Bashar al-Assad, who had been supported militarily by Putin, fled to Moscow in December 2024 when Syria’s current leader Ahmad al-Sharaa—linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS—overthrew the Ba’ath Party after thirteen years of civil war. The past twenty-five years have shown that neither the Iraq War nor the civil wars in Libya and Syria brought democracy or pro-Western governments to those countries. Iraq drifted under Iranian influence, Libya returned to Russia’s sphere of influence, and Syria is now led by a Sunni Islamist fanatic connected to the Muslim Brotherhood who is neither a friend of America nor of Israel, even though he is attempting to soften his public image in order to consolidate his power.

Iran, however, may turn out differently, because the Iranian opposition that opposes the current regime is strongly pro-Western and pro-Israel, as can be heard today in the chants praising “Bibi” in Tehran. The Iranian opposition also largely consists of a secular segment of the population that takes pride in Persia’s ancient pre-Islamic history during the era of Cyrus the Great and the Parthian and Sassanian empires. Iran does not face the same danger of fracturing into sectarian wars as happened in Iraq, which was torn apart by Sunni-Shia conflict after the fall of Saddam. This does not mean that the opposition is politically completely unified, but they are all united by hatred toward their Islamist oppressors and by a desire for a Western-style liberal democracy where political disagreements are settled at the ballot box.

The most popular leader among the protesters has become Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States and is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran who was overthrown in 1979. In several interviews, Pahlavi has stated that he does not wish to return to Iran as a monarch but supports Iran’s right to democracy and wants the people themselves to vote on who they want to lead them. Pahlavi recently held an important press conference in Washington in which he outlined the direction for Iran after the fall of the current regime:

In a free Iran, our resources and ingenuity will drive prosperity at home and strengthen global supply chains, including in the Americas.

A free Iran will be a game changer for peace in the Middle East and for Iran’s relations with the United States and the West. The Iranian people love America and hate this regime. After its collapse, the world will no longer hear cries of ‘death to America,’ but will instead see a nation that welcomes America as a true friend.

President Trump brokered the Abraham Accords, which brought peace between Arab nations and Israel. I see the possibility of extending this idea to a free Iran through an agreement we could call the Cyrus Accords—honoring our ancient heritage of tolerance and partnership. The possibilities are endless.

The transition will be peaceful, stable, and orderly. My team of experts has developed a plan for the first hundred days after the regime’s collapse as well as a long-term program for the reconstruction and stabilization of our country.

The plan is supported by business leaders and provides a detailed roadmap for national recovery: restoring economic confidence, ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of essential services, and laying the foundation for prosperity in a free Iran.

This will be followed by a constitutional process under international supervision that will allow Iranians to determine their own destiny through free and fair elections.

A free and democratic Iran will live in peace with its neighbors. It will become an engine of growth and opportunity for the entire region and the world. In history there are moments when the moral obligation to act becomes so strong that the burden of inaction becomes unbearable. This is one of those moments.

The Iranian people have risen to reclaim their country. History honors those who stand beside them. Long live Iran. Thank you.”

The Abraham Accords, forged in 2020 by the Trump administration between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, were named after Abraham, who is regarded as the common patriarch of both Jews and Arabs. Pahlavi now promises to expand this into a Cyrus Accord between Iran, Israel, and the Arab states of the region—named after Cyrus the Great, the father of Persia’s ancient civilization, who is mentioned in the Bible as a pagan ruler who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Second Temple after seventy years of exile in Babylon.

This statement immediately set off my prophetic antennae, because already in 2020 I wrote on my blog that the Abraham Accords would ultimately need to include both Saudi Arabia and Iran:

History will also show whether the “confirmation of the covenant” foretold in Daniel 9:27 will include Iran joining a pact with Israel and the Arab states. One hint of this appeared in a report published in The Times of Israel in January stating that Prince Charles was considering a trip to Iran as part of his efforts to promote peace in the Middle East. Interestingly, this report was published only a couple of days before President Trump unveiled his “Deal of the Century” at the White House and only a few days after Charles made his first official state visit to Israel, as I already discussed in my article While Trump presents the “Deal of the Century,” Prince Charles calls himself a peacemaker in the Middle East and considers a trip to Iran.

I had raised the same idea already in April 2016 in my article Prince Charles plans a historic visit to Iran and Israel. How close are we to Daniel’s 70th week?

When Daniel 9:27 declares that the Antichrist “will confirm a covenant with many,” I believe this will include far more nations than just Israel and Palestine. Most likely this covenant—or false peace agreement—will involve many of Israel’s enemies. Since Iran, pursuing nuclear weapons and led by the religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—who has called Israel “a cancer that should be removed from among the nations”—has become today the Jewish state’s number one threat, it would be necessary for the Antichrist’s seven-year covenant to draw Iran into it as well. For this reason Prince Charles’s planned autumn trip to Iran [which ultimately never took place despite the initial press reports] may have been the beginning of the peace agreement he would forge between many nations of the Middle East. With his unique relations with Saudi Arabia, Charles could also act as a mediator in improving relations between the Saudis and Iran.

In September 2017 I predicted the Abraham Accords—signed three years later—in my blog article How could Donald Trump achieve a historic Middle East peace agreement between Israel and Palestine in the coming months? And would such an agreement make him the Antichrist of the Bible? Although the title referred to Israel and Palestine, the article discussed the Trump administration’s strategy of promoting Middle East peace by bringing Israel and the Arab states closer together because of their shared perception of Iran as a threat. In that same text I also predicted that Iran would eventually join an alliance between Israel and the Arab states:

Donald Trump is trying to create an alliance between the Jews and the Sunni Muslims of the region, but Prince Charles could strengthen this alliance by taking it even further and bringing the Shiites of Iran into the “covenant with death and hell.” Trump’s vision for Middle East peace may create a temporary alliance between Israel, the PLO, and the Sunni states, but by isolating Iran’s Shiites it will ultimately lead to a third world war between Iran and Israel and their respective “big brothers,” Russia and the United States. Only after this will the Antichrist “confirm a covenant with many” and bring Iran into the Middle East peace process as well. Only time will show how events unfold.

Thus, in 2017 I speculated about the future in the following way:

1. First, the Trump administration would succeed in bringing about a Middle East peace agreement between Israel and the Arab states while isolating Iran outside this Western alliance (this happened in 2020, with the exception of Saudi Arabia).
2. The hostility of Iran’s Shiite regime toward Israel and the United States, together with Russia’s close alliance with Iran’s current government, would ultimately lead to a third world war… (this did not happen, but the events beginning on October 7 did trigger a broader Middle Eastern war, though not yet a world war).
3. The Antichrist would arise from the ashes of this war and forge a seven-year peace between Iran, Israel, and the Arab states (this could now be unfolding if Iran’s regime collapses and Reza Pahlavi implements the Cyrus Accord—although this does not necessarily mean it is the same as the Antichrist’s seven-year covenant).

Conclusion

I have often noted that biblical prophecies are quite general in nature and open to interpretation. They do not give us a complete, comprehensive, and detailed picture of exactly how future events must unfold. Sometimes it is more fascinating to realize that one’s earlier speculations were wrong precisely because it forces us to reexamine our previous assumptions with fresh eyes. At the same time, we can compare the course of events with our earlier predictions in order to see where we were correct and where we went astray by drawing premature conclusions.

Had I been more far-sighted, I would have emphasized more strongly that peace between Iran and Israel would be impossible as long as Tehran is ruled by a theocratic government dominated by radical Shiite clerics who do not even recognize Israel’s existence and will never do so without abandoning their own extreme Islamist worldview. This will not change whether the mediator is President Trump or Charles III. This is already evident from the interview with Ali Khamenei from 1982 below, in which he says that his government could never be a friend of either America or Israel.

Because Cyrus the Great authorized the Jews to rebuild their Second Temple in 537 BC, Reza Pahlavi could act as a modern-day Cyrus the Great by making possible the construction of the Third Temple, which the Antichrist will desecrate with the “abomination of desolation” and where he will proclaim himself to be God (Dan. 11:31; Matt. 24:15; 2 Thess. 2:4).

However, I have already argued since 2017 that President Donald Trump fits the role of a modern-day Cyrus the Great even better—a comparison also echoed by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Interestingly, the etymology of the name Donald John Trump itself means a powerful and successful ruler of the world favored by God, one who surpasses others in excellence. This is not some form of Trump worship; his name literally carries these meanings.

Donald – derived from the Proto-Celtic word Dubno-valos, meaning “world ruler” or “ruler of the world.”

John – derived from the Hebrew name Johanan, meaning “Yahweh has favored” or “God has been gracious.”

Trump – derived from the Latin word triumphus, meaning victory, success, or achievement. The phrase trump card refers to a decisive advantage, and by 1819 the word trump had also come to mean, figuratively, a person who surpasses others in excellence.