Iran’s Oil Weapon

Good morning!

Three commercial vessels were struck near the Strait of Hormuz today. One ship suffered a major fire, and three crew members are missing.

[BRIEF]

Iran, bristling with threats to close the strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply transits, is surely responsible.

Traffic through the strait has largely halted, hammering markets. Donald Trump has said he’ll secure vessels that pass through and even cover costs for losses. Clearly it’s no guarantee. Hundreds of ships have anchored or rerouted, avoiding the risk.

What a weapon for Iran! The Strait of Hormuz is not just invaluable, it’s vulnerable. The geography, traffic density and types of (cheap) weapons that can be used from nearby territory (especially from Iranian territory along the northern coast) make it one of the world’s hardest maritime choke points to protect.

EuroIntelligence makes a terrific point: “[I]f the U.S. reopens the strait, their job will be to protect every single ship, whereas the Iranians only need a single successful hit.”

The impact on global energy supply is no joke. This threat will persist as long as the Iranian regime remains in power. And regime change no longer seems to be the goal of this war. Just moments after oil spiked to $120 a barrel, Trump called the war “very complete, pretty much.”

If Iran’s regime survives because of pricey oil, it just got confirmation of how potent the threat of oil disruptions really is. This will hardly be the last time it deploys this weapon.

And take note: This will affect Europe far more than it does America.

We’re getting a good look at what could be a significant part of the “push” of the king of the south—the push that provokes a European whirlwind and ultimately sparks a prophesied world war.

Sunni Group Aligns With Shiite Iran

Recent reports show that the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni terrorist organization, was being trained and supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. On Monday, the U.S. State Department responded by making it a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group.

• Many Sunni Islamists have turned against the Islamic Republic of Iran since the irgc started bombing Arab Gulf states. Yet the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood is following the lead of the group’s acting leader, Egyptian Mahmoud Hussein, who condemned the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and called on Arabs to confront “Zionist recklessness” and American “arrogance.”

The alignment of these Sunni and Shiite entities points to a key Bible prophecy.

Background: For centuries, the religious split between Sunnis and Shiites has caused the main political tension within the Muslim world. This reality began to change in 1979 when the Iranian Revolution blended the radical theology of the Muslim Brotherhood with Shiite Islam.

• After the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini read the writings of Muslim Brotherhood leader Sayyid Qutb, he rejected the idea that no ayatollah could hold political power until the Mahdi’s return and devised a controversial theory of Islamic government in which the state is guided by one cleric acting as the Mahdi’s deputy.
• Many Shiite clerics, in both Iraq and Iran, opposed Khomeini’s clerical rule, yet his theory allowed him to create a theocratic dictatorship despite not being a direct descendant of Mohammed’s cousin Ali, as Shiite theology requires.

These historical facts mean that the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood and the Shiite regime in Iran are more ideologically aligned with each other than with traditionalists within their own sect of Islam.

Prophecy says: With the Shiite regime in Iran being attacked by America and Israel and gaining support from moderate Sunni states, Bible prophecies that apply to this crucial region are coming closer to fulfillment.

Watch for Iran to reach out to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which is influential in Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and other North African states. The much-touted Shiite Crescent in the Middle East has collapsed, but Bible prophecy indicates that radical Islam, led by Iran, will remain influential in Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya (Daniel 11:43).

This indicates that groups like the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood will continue to recognize the Iranian supreme leader as the head of radical Islam and will act on that alignment with deadly force.

Churchill Replaced With a Badger?! Britain Scorns Its Heritage

Great figures from British history like Winston Churchill and Jane Austen will be removed from British banknotes and replaced by pictures of native British wildlife, such as badgers and otters. It’s part of a raft of changes announced over the last day that break with British tradition.

• For years the Bank of England has taken a “woke” approach to who it puts on banknotes. Elizabeth Fry appeared on the £5 note for 15 years, even though almost nobody in Britain has heard of her.

Now though, the nation finds it so hard to find common ground over who should be celebrated that the bank is dispensing with historical figures altogether.

Britain is rapidly dismantling its own history in several ways:

• A bill to remove jury trials for those expected to receive a sentence of less than three years passed its first vote yesterday, 304 to 203. The right to jury trials is enshrined in the Magna Carta and has been an important safeguard against tyranny and abuse. In several high-profile cases of people accused of speech crimes, the jury has thrown out the case. Many suspect this plays a role in the current government’s desire to eliminate juries.
• The government launched its digital ID yesterday. Being forced to carry identity papers has long been associated with tyranny in the UK. Unlike the U.S., it is not a legal requirement to carry your driver’s license when driving, for example. Plans to force a digital ID scheme were scrapped last year after a massive public backlash. Now they’ll be “voluntary.” But covid-19 showed that the government can make it very difficult to live without complying with “voluntary” requirements.
• A peer kicking the last of the hereditary peers out of the House of Lords passed its final hurdle yesterday. The House of Lords has little actual power these days—mostly it can send something back to Parliament for more consideration if it thinks a law is poorly thought through. Most lords today are appointed, not hereditary. There’s a lot to debate about Britain’s House of Lords, but this is an important break with Britain’s history.

Jury trials and aversion to IDs are not in the Bible, but they are related to biblical principles. Much of British heritage points back to its history with God. That is what is really under attack. To learn more, read our article “The Inspiring History Britain Should Never Forget.”

IN OTHER NEWS

Merz warns against endless war in Iran: On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that he thinks there is no plan to bring the war in Iran to a “swift and convincing conclusion” and that Germany does not want the conflict to be endless. Merz’s rhetoric on the war has been noticeably diplomatic, but this statement reminds the U.S. and Israel that Germany has its own interests in the region. These include an uninterrupted flow of oil and gas.

Do Israel and America have different plans for Iran? Israeli officials fear the Trump administration’s idea of victory against Iran may be different from theirs, according to the Jerusalem Post. President Trump’s March 9 comment that the war is “very complete” raised concerns that the U.S. may end its strikes soon. In June, the U.S. followed Israeli preemptive strikes and bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities, then ended its operation and pressured Israel to conclude its operations, with President Trump hastening to characterize it as “the 12-day war.” Over the past 10 days, the U.S. and Israel have applied far greater force and weakened Iran significantly, but Iran’s blockage of international oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz appears to be motivating the president to declare victory and stop the attack. But a premature drawdown would leave Iran in a position to continually threaten the world—just as we forecast at the start of this war.

Pakistan escorting its ships through Hormuz: Pakistan’s navy announced Monday that it would escort its merchant marine vessels through the Strait of Hormuz “to ensure the uninterrupted flow of national energy supplies.” Pakistan heavily depends on energy imports from countries like Qatar, and Iran’s attempts to close the strait constitute a national security emergency. This is just one example of the wider consequences of threatening the strait and what some nations are willing to do to keep it open.

Epstein ranch searched: On Monday, state investigators began searching a secluded luxury ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, where the late child rapist and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein entertained many wealthy and powerful guests. The New Mexico attorney general’s office announced that the search was being done with the cooperation of the current ranch owners. Evidence may exist at the ranch relating to Epstein’s decades of trafficking children for sex.