As part of its greater global ambitions, Iran seeks to cement its position as the most dominant nation in the Middle East. In an analysis yesterday, Stratfor outlined one way in which it is using the current Israeli-Hezbollah conflict—which it, in fact, instigated—for that purpose:

The United States on July 18 called on Iran and Syria to get Hezbollah to halt its rocket attacks against Israel. This is what Iran was hoping would happen when it got its Lebanese Shiite Islamist proxy to abduct the Israeli soldiers: that it would be able to enhance its sphere of influence in the region.

On July 18, White House spokesman Tony Snow stated Iran and Syria need to be “using their influence to get Hezbollah to stop firing rockets and return the [Israeli] soldiers.” Stratfor points out that although the U.S. had called on Syria to reign in Hezbollah soon after the hostilities started, “this is the first time the United States has asked for Iranian involvement in the matter.”

By doing so, the U.S. is acknowledging that Iran is a decisive factor in the Middle East crisis.

This move is in keeping with Iran’s strategy, aimed at gaining entry into a dispute involving Israel in order to enhance its credentials as a leader of the Muslims in the Middle East. … The Hezbollah-generated crisis gives the Iranians the opportunity to do this, and they are hoping they will be able use their influence in Syria and Lebanon to help defuse the situation and thus consolidate their position as a player in the region.

Hence, the U.S. (and Israel) would actually find itself indebted to Iran, creating a situation not unlike that involving Iraq. In that situation, the U.S. depends on Iran to keep a lid on its fellow Shiites to prevent full-scale civil war breaking out.

In any case, we can be sure any defusing of the current crisis Israel faces would be extremely temporary.

What Iran is hoping to get out of the current crisis is the ability to move forward in its bid to assume leadership of the Muslim Middle East by exploiting the Israeli-Palestinian issue. …Eventually, Tehran hopes the Hezbollah-Hamas dynamic will allow it to overcome the Sunni-Shiite tensions keeping it from its ambition of being the regional powerhouse.

For over a decade, the Trumpet has warned readers to watch for Iran to fulfill a role as a biblically prophesied “king of the south,” and at the same time to become more directly involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—but, ultimately, not in a way most expect.

Editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote last year that Zechariah 14:2-3 “prophesy that the Palestinians are going to take over half of Jerusalem very soon. I don’t believe that the Palestinians, by themselves, could do that—but they could if the king of the south [Iran, as labeled in the prophecy of Daniel 11:40] supported and helped them. We need to watch: Iran wants to take over that city. Such a conquest would galvanize the whole Islamic world to get behind the king of the south—a goal Iran has been working toward all along” (Royal Vision, January-February 2005; emphasis added).

Iran’s employment of Hezbollah to ignite the current crisis is evidence of both its interest in the Holy Land and its desire for preeminence in the region.