“In my opinion, we are at total war with the United States, Israel and Europe,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media Saturday. “They want to bring our country to its knees.” But after being beaten by Israel and the U.S. in June, could Iran back such a dramatic threat?

The world has actually never been more in danger of Iran, and the June war has everything to do with it.

The Nuclear Green Light

According to the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, Iran’s supreme leader has “decided to give the green light to the development of compact warheads for ballistic missiles.” “Sources in Tehran” claim that since Israel and the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear sites in June, Iran’s leadership has concluded that “the only true deterrent that could save the Iranian regime in the event of a conflict against Israel and its U.S. allies, short of a humiliating surrender to the Americans, would be nuclear weapons.”

Iran has had a nuclear weapons program for decades. But the report speculates Iran may have been posturing to gain a nuclear deal like the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It states, “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has always blocked the final decision to move to 90 percent enrichment [weapons grade] and to begin developing miniaturized nuclear warheads small enough to be deliverable. This was despite pressure from various quarters within the regime, above all the Revolutionary Guards.”

The institute claims the June strikes “collapsed” Iran’s belief in its defense systems. Humiliated by superior technology, Iran is apparently realizing that if it doesn’t rush for a bomb now, it could face collapse. Khamenei reportedly authorized nuclear warhead construction in October. The institute’s sources claim, “Khamenei would still not have authorized uranium enrichment beyond 60 percent, although rumors are also circulating of an ultra-secret enrichment program under way at one of the covert sites, which Iran has never disclosed to the [United Nations].”

So far, these are only allegations by anonymous sources to one think tank. But considering their subject, the allegations are monumental.

Biological and Chemical Weapons Too?

Iran may not be restricting its weapons developments to nuclear weapons. “[I]nformed military sources” told Iran International that “Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (irgc) is developing biological and chemical warheads for the country’s long-range ballistic missiles ….”

The sources claimed that “these programs are largely carried out under the supervision of the irgc Aerospace Force and include optimizing ballistic missiles to carry chemical and biological agents, as well as upgrading the associated command-and-control systems.” Like with the nuclear upgrade, this is apparently in response to the June strikes.

Iran has already had access to chemical weapons. It sponsored former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime as a proxy. Assad had a large chemical weapon stockpile he used to gas his own people during the Syrian civil war. The new Syrian regime has pledged to responsibly dispose of Assad’s chemical weapons. But much mystery surrounds Assad’s old program, and it isn’t yet known if its fate can be accurately documented.

An old adage states that an animal is most dangerous when it is wounded. Iran now appears wounded. The speed at which Israel and the U.S. attacked in June shows Iran it cannot afford to waste time. We can expect Iran to complete its weapons development as quickly as possible.

Armageddon

The Iranian regime’s particular variant of Islam maintains its messiah figure called the Mahdi will return soon after a worldwide period of chaos. Many leaders feel obligated to create this chaos to speed up their messiah’s return.

In his booklet Nuclear Armageddon Is ‘At the Door,’ Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry calls Iran’s extremist doctrine a “counterfeit” of a prophecy in the New Testament. Jesus Christ prophesied of cataclysmic world conditions prior to the Second Coming in His Olivet prophecy. Unlike in Mahdist teaching, Christ was giving a warning for His people. He stated in Matthew 24:21-22: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [“not a soul would be saved alive,” James Moffatt Translation]: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Mankind was not capable of wiping itself out until the advent of weapons of mass destruction.

A parallel prophecy discussing this time period is in Daniel 12:1, which discusses the same “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” But the previous chapter shows what starts this war: “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (Daniel 11:40).

Mr. Flurry since the 1990s has identified this “king of the south” as Iran. (See here for more information.) The Bible prophesies that nuclear war starts with a global provocation from Iran.

This has everything to do with the latest news.

Commentating on nuclear programs like Iran’s, Mr. Flurry writes: “We are now at the edge of this nuclear abyss! … This is not a fantasy! This is the real world!”

Christ commanded His people in the Olivet prophecy: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).

Watching means being aware of world events and where they are leading. There is a lot to watch right now in Iran, and it doesn’t take much imagination to foresee where it will lead. How will you respond?

To learn more, request a free copy of Nuclear Armageddon Is ‘At the Door.’