The United Arab Emirates is planning to join the war against Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported April 1. Arab officials say the U.A.E. is waiting for a United Nations resolution permitting it to “open the Strait of Hormuz by force,” it reported.

As European nations rule out helping open the Strait of Hormuz, the U.A.E. apparently considers Iran’s terrorist attacks on civilian ships to be an existential threat to its economy.

• Such a resolution would be unlikely to pass, since Russia and China often side with Iran and have Security Council veto authority. However, Iran has reneged on its pledge not to attack commercial traffic from places like China.

U.S. exit? The Wall Street Journal also cited U.S. administration officials as saying that President Donald Trump told aides he is “willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.”

• Trump is nearing the four-to-six-week deadline he articulated for concluding the war: It appears he plans to stick to that deadline. Congress would have to authorize any use of military force beyond 60 days.
• He said on March 23 that he is open to “jointly” controlling the Strait of Hormuz between “me and the ayatollah.”

America seems ready to wind the war down. Israel, as much as it would like to incapacitate Iran permanently, can’t do much without American support. It appears to accept that Iran’s regime will remain in place.

This makes it all the more remarkable that the U.A.E. seems ready to keep the fight going.

• The Associated Press reported March 31 that Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are pressuring President Trump to continue the war until Iran’s ability to attack them is fully neutered.

Prophetic implications: Psalm 83 records an alliance of Middle Eastern nations formed “that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (verse 4). History records no such alliance, which is why Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has called it a prophecy for today. Corresponding the listed nations with their descendants, he links the “Ishmaelites” of verse 6 with today’s Gulf Arab states.

In The King of the South, he states that this alliance will form to counter the threat from Iran and its proxies. The Gulf Arabs clearly see the threat from Iran. To understand how events in this theater of conflict are about to dramatically change, read the prophecies in your own Bible, guided by The King of the South.