Yemen is one of the most strategically important countries in the world. Recent developments there have shocked many people and will have dramatic effects that extend far beyond the Middle East.

In January 2015, the Houthis, a rebel group sponsored and directed by Iran, overthrew the pro-American Yemeni government. After it conquered the capital city of Sana’a, throngs of Houthis began chanting “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel.” These are exactly the same battle cries that Iran uses.

This stunned many people in Europe and terrified many of the more moderate Arab states, especially those who rely on unlimited access to the Red Sea.

The Houthi takeover in Yemen proves that Iran is implementing a bold strategy to control the vital sea-lane from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

We need to understand the gravity of this situation in Yemen!

In order to reach the Mediterranean Sea from the Indian Ocean, a lot of seafaring trade—including 6.2 million barrels of oil per day—passes through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the southern gate of the Red Sea. Measuring just 18 miles across, this channel is the closest point between the two landmasses of central Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The northeast edge of the strait is in Yemeni territory.

The strategic importance of controlling this passage is equal to controlling the Suez Canal, since both are part of the same thoroughfare.

Consider the global ramifications: Nearly 10 percent of global seaborne oil supplies pass through the gates of the Red Sea. Roughly 20,000 ships pass through the Suez Canal and Bab el-Mandeb each year—an average of 55 per day. About 15 percent of global maritime trade travels through the Red Sea.

Now that Iran controls Yemen, it can virtually close or open the spigot on Middle East oil bound for Europe. And Europe is taking notice!

Historical Role of the Red Sea

By linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea has always played a key role in world affairs.

From antiquity until the 15th century, the Red Sea acted as the main thoroughfare for east-west seafaring trade. Goods from the east were transported by ship through the Gulf of Aden, through the Bab el-Mandeb strait and into the Red Sea, continuing north toward the Gulf of Suez. Once caravans made land, they transported the cargo north toward the Mediterranean, where goods were again loaded onto ships for transport to southern Europe.

However, with the 15th-century discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, the Red Sea’s importance as a global trade route waned. When they realized that Africa could be circumnavigated, Portuguese and then Dutch sailors used powerful westerly winds to cut down on sailing time by taking the southern route toward Asia. Later, with the invention of steam-powered ships in the 18th century, ocean traffic around the southern cape increased even more dramatically, and Red Sea ports lost most of their strategic value.

But then in 1869, the Suez Canal opened. Suddenly, the distance between European and Asian ports was slashed by half to two thirds. For instance, according to a study on the Bab el-Mandeb published by the U.S. War College in 1991, the distance between Kuwait and Liverpool was reduced from 13,500 miles around the Cape of Good Hope to about 7,000 miles via the Red Sea. The route from Singapore to Liverpool was also cut by almost half. This naturally reinvigorated the use of the Red Sea passage, causing a huge surge in shipping and trade.

The strategic value of the Red Sea increased further in the 1930s, when oil began to flow from the Persian Gulf into Europe and the United States.

Since that time, oil has become the chief commodity driving economic growth and military preparedness around the world. Thus, controlling the Red Sea and its two gates—the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb—became critical for maintaining the peace of the world.

This fact led Yemeni Colonel Staff Hussain al-Yadoomi to write for the U.S. War College in 1991, “One of the primary duties of the international community is to act as an alert guardian to ensure that the Bab el-Mandeb strait is available to all navigation and at all times” (emphasis mine throughout).

Now rather suddenly, Iran—the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism—has basically become the gatekeeper to this strategic asset. This really does threaten the peace of the world!

Realizing the Red Sea’s strategic value, Western nations, led by Britain and the U.S., have tried to ensure that the Red Sea remains open by supporting relatively conservative regimes in the Middle East such as Egypt and Yemen. Of course, the drawback to such a policy is that in the volatile Middle East, governments can change as fast as the shifting sands. But for many decades, this policy of supporting certain Middle Eastern leaders—backed by a strong naval presence in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea—worked. It kept the Red Sea open most of the time.

Now, there is a big difference. Britain is nowhere to be seen. And to its great shame, the United States is actually supporting the Iranian takeover of Yemen! You can read more about this in Chapter 2.

Iran’s Red Sea Strategy

The Houthis’ takeover of Yemen was not just an organic revolution. It was part of a deliberate and calculated Iranian strategy to conquer the Red Sea. This strategy is revealed in a powerful prophecy in the biblical book of Daniel.

As astounding as it may sound, the Prophet Daniel foretold about what has happened in Yemen! He even mentions names of individual nations along the Red Sea corridor that will be aligned with Iran.

Notice it: “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). This is an end-time prophecy. It concerns the time we are living in right now, and it directly concerns these Middle Eastern nations.

For more than 25 years we have identified “the king of the south” as a radical Middle Eastern power led by Iran, and the king of the north as a German-led European power. This prophecy reveals that the Iranian-led power will push at Europe. It may be that this push could take place in the very area of Yemen or the Gulf of Aden.

Notice what Michael Segall wrote for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: “If the Shia rebels gain control of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, Iran can attain a foothold in this sensitive region, giving access to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, a cause of concern not only for its sworn rivals Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf states, but also for Israel and European countries along the Mediterranean. Arab commentators in the Gulf have warned in recent years about this Iranian push” (Nov. 3, 2014).

While Arab commentators may have speculated about this push in recent years, we have warned about this Iranian push for over a quarter century! Taking over Yemen puts Iran in an even stronger position to make this push.

The following verses in Daniel reveal other nations that will align with Iran, the king of the south. Those mentioned include Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya (verses 42-43). These nations all follow the sea route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. In April 2011, I wrote that these nations are “the key that unlocks the strategy of radical Islam. … They are on the two seas that comprise the most important trade route in the world! Whoever heavily influences or controls Ethiopia will undoubtedly also control the small areas of Eritrea and Djibouti on the Red Sea coastline. These areas only recently became independent of Ethiopia. Also, I believe the Bible view is that these small areas are included as a part of Ethiopia.” (My booklet Libya and Ethiopia in Prophecy explains all this in detail. All of our literature is free.)

Reports also indicate that Iran has established itself in Eritrea. A January 27, 2015, Breitbart News report said Egyptian intelligence has found a secret Iranian base built “at the port of Assab in Eritrea on the Red Sea.”

Look at a map. Yemen is just a short 18 miles across the water to Eritrea, which was until recently a part of Ethiopia. Controlling these nations could give Iran virtual control of the trade through these seas!

As I wrote in 2011, “Radical Islam could stop the flow of essential oil to the U.S. and Europe.”

It is not farfetched to see Iran using its power to control the flow of oil out of the Middle East. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened as much. And on January 17, 2015, the Iranian state-sponsored Tasnim news agency published an article that said boldly: “Today, all the arteries of oil transport—from Bab el-Mandeb strait to Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz—are under Iranian control, by means of Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, and within range of Iranian missiles” (translation memri).

Iran is aggressively securing its foreign holdings along the Red Sea—and boasting about how it could use them!

Yet the United States is apparently allowing Iran free course in an effort to win it over in nuclear negotiations.

Many commentators recognize what this takeover in Yemen reveals about Iran’s overarching strategy in the Middle East.

The late syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said in an interview with Fox News: “Now, it’s true that the Houthis are against al Qaeda, but the real issue is that the Houthis are a client of, supported by, and in some ways advised by Iran. And as you saw on the map, the Saudis are looking at the Iranians in the north, the Iranian allies—which is essentially Iraq, Syria and Lebanon on one side—and Yemen now to the south and west under Iranian dominance, and they are scared to death. That’s why this is a double attack on us. It’s the loss of an ally against al Qaeda, and it’s a huge geopolitical gain for Iran, extending its influence over Arab states” (Jan. 22, 2015).

He was and others are sounding the alarm on Iran’s growing hegemony in the Middle East. But what these analysts and commentators do not see is where this situation is ultimately leading. That is what Bible prophecy tells us.

How It Will End

The Iranians are mainly looking to America and Israel as their enemy, but they are looking in the wrong direction, as far as their survival is concerned.

Daniel 11:40 shows that the United States won’t be a factor as these events play out! It is Europe that Iran is going to push against. And it is Europe that will respond.

A European superpower is rising on the scene that will have the boldness and the power to deal with Iran’s pushing.

Europe is very worried about what Iran is doing in Yemen. And unlike America, this European power will act!

Daniel 11:40 says Europe will come at Iran like a whirlwind. Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon says that the Hebrew word for whirlwind is “used of the commotion of a storm or a tempest, … to sweep away in a storm.” Europe is going to throw everything it has at the Iran-led radical Muslims and utterly defeat them!

That drama all starts with a push from Iran.

This is the same nation that is about to get the nuclear bomb. Iranian leaders and many of their people believe the 12th imam—their version of the Messiah—is about to return. They think his return can be hastened by creating violence and chaos. Several nations in this world have nuclear weapons—but only Iran has leaders who harbor such dangerous religious thinking! What will happen when they get hold of nuclear weapons? What sort of nuclear chaos would they stir up if they thought it would cause their messiah to return? In the thrall of religious zealotry, they would not even care about their own destruction if they use a nuclear weapon!

But who is going to stand up to Iran? If no one will stand up to it today, when it does not yet have nuclear bombs, who will stand up to it when it actually has the bomb?

The Bible does reveal that finally, after being pushed too far, the German-led European power will stand up to the king of the south.

However, this prophecy about Yemen, the king of the north and the king of the south all has a wonderful conclusion.

Following it into chapter 12 of Daniel (a part of this prophetic vision), we see that this clash will lead to catastrophic world war—“a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time” (verse 1). Many other Bible prophecies talk about this period. Jesus Christ described it as “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21). This is the dramatic climax of this age of man—and once it is over, God is going to begin to intervene in world affairs in a powerful way.

Daniel 12:11 mentions an event toward the beginning of that “great tribulation,” when “the abomination that maketh desolate [is] set up.” Christ referred to this statement from Daniel in His famous Olivet prophecy (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14). He revealed that this “abomination” is actually “Jerusalem compassed with armies”—armies that are about to destroy the Holy City! (Luke 21:20). Putting all the prophecies together shows that these are the European armies of the king of the north after they have conquered the king of the south.

And notice the conclusion to Daniel 12:11: From the time that these armies are set up, “there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”

Think about that! This prophecy reveals we are getting to a time where you can actually start counting days until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! These events in Yemen show that we are almost able to begin to count the days. It was all prophesied thousands of years ago, and now every bit of it is being fulfilled before your eyes. These events are going to end with Jesus Christ’s return to Earth!

Iran is the number one terrorist-sponsoring nation in the world. It supports the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It is providing aid to Syria, where the government is terrorizing its own people. It is involved with al Qaeda in gaining control over Libya. It supports terrorists in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip that are attacking Israel. It is behind the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is deeply entrenched in Iraq and is pushing its Islamist agenda in other nations throughout the region and beyond. It is defying the will of the Western world by continuing to develop its nuclear program.

Tehran is pushing its own strategy very effectively. However, this is about to dramatically change.

Biblical prophecy refers to this end-time Islamist power as “the king of the south.” (You can prove this to yourself by ordering a free copy of our booklet The King of the South.) It shows that this nation will play a key role in lighting the fuse to a world war!

It also tells us that as the Iranians push their own agenda—growing more and more confident by other nations’ weakness and inaction—they will suddenly be blindsided by a whirlwind attack that will wipe them out!

We have taught for about 20 years, based on this prophecy, that Iran and its radical Islamist allies are going to be conquered. But we have never been able to tell you how it is going to happen. Until now.

The Bible tells you how this will happen! Daniel 11:40 speaks of a “whirlwind.” This one word prophesies how this clash with Iran is going to unfold. It reveals in detail what is about to happen in the Middle East—and in Africa, southwest Asia and Europe.

The Prophecy

Daniel 11:40 describes how the king of the south will be violently invaded by the “king of the north”: “[A]t the time of the end”—that is the time immediately before us—“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.”

The “king of the north” in prophecy is Catholic Europe, led by Germany. We offer proof of this truth in our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.

This prophecy describes Germany and the resurrected Holy Roman Empire. The Germans are excellent war strategists and warriors. They are savvy enough to realize that they will never have peace with Iran. They know that sooner or later, their two religions—their two civilizations—will clash.

This scripture describes a time when Germany’s Catholic empire will wage all-out war, throwing everything it has at radical Islam—and dominating it like a violent flood pouring in!

Here is the question we need to focus on: How could Germany do this so easily, so effectively and so quickly?

Berlin will not be able to overwhelm Iran in the near future unless it is working on a special strategy right now.

The Strategy

Think about the keyword in Daniel 11:40. The verse talks about an attack from the king of the north, but the emphasis is on the strategy of this military attack.

If you’re in a whirlwind, it whirls all around you. It whirls you away! Look at the map (page 15), and you can see the German strategy: to surround Iran and its allies.

The Iranians are so focused on conquering their own objectives that they don’t see what the Germans are doing. They don’t recognize how Germany is planning for the bigger war to come! No one but the Trumpet recognizes it! But the facts are visible for anyone to see.

Germany has expected to clash with Iran, and it has been working on a strategy for over a decade. That strategy is almost complete. Germany has surrounded Iran.

“Whirlwind” is a very revealing word in this verse. It means “to sweep away in a storm,” according to Gesenius’ Lexicon. It can mean to bristle with terror. It can also mean terror-stricken, or shivering with fear, invoking the creeping of the skin of one who is terror-stricken.

This word has an unusual emphasis on terror! Will this terrifying whirlwind be nuclear? It certainly will be terrorizing! And it’s about to explode in the Middle East. Finally the terrorists will become terrorized!

James Moffatt translates this verse, “When the end arrives, the king of the South shall butt at him, but the king of the North shall storm at him like a whirlwind, with chariots and cavalry and a large fleet, invading his lands and flooding into them.”

Soncino says “the king of the north … will swoop down.” This isn’t simply a straight-on assault. It’s a storm that whirls around and around, invading the land and flooding into it!

The king of the north couldn’t come like a whirlwind unless it surrounds Iran and its allies. That is being meticulously planned right now! Germany is busy preparing to execute a whirlwind strategy to rush upon and overflow Iran.

If you study what is happening in the territory surrounding Iran today, you already see Germany all over it. Daniel 11:40 is already in the early stages of being fulfilled! Iran and its Islamist allies will be caught inside a whirlwind! That’s what the prophecy is all about.

In Every Direction

How, exactly, has the king of the north surrounded the king of the south? Its troops haven’t encircled Tehran. It doesn’t have bases and aircraft carriers dotting Iran’s borders. But it has made some very intelligent, very strategic deployments and deals that give it a presence all the way around Iran’s sphere of influence.

Look at the map—Iran and its allies are in the middle of a deadly circle!

Iran is spreading its influence westward into Egypt and Libya. Germany has sold around $375 million in weapons to countries involved in the war in Libya. Across Libya’s western border lies Algeria, where Germany has a personnel carrier plant and a deal to manufacture rifles. Berlin also has connections within Egypt, where it has sold it hundreds of millions of dollars in armaments, including two German-built Type 209 attack submarines worth $700 million.

To the south, Germany has a handful of soldiers and police officers in Mali, Somalia and South Sudan.

Much closer to Iran, directly across the Persian Gulf, lie the Arabian Peninsula nations. In 2021, Germany approved $334 million in weapons sales to Qatar, $57 million to the United Arab Emirates, $26 million to Kuwait, $25 million to Turkey, $2 million to Jordan, and $1 million to Bahrain.

Germany drastically cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia in 2019 after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi a year earlier. But it did not sever them completely. Germany’s government has approved arms exports worth over $1 billion to members of the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In the Arabian Sea, the Bundeswehr has a frigate, maritime surveillance planes and 400 troops.

Germany pulled all its troops out of Afghanistan before America’s disastrous withdrawal from that nation in 2021, but the king of the north also has a strong presence to Iran’s west. The Bundeswehr has been involved in a mission in Lebanon since 2006 and currently has around 150 soldiers stationed off the coast of Lebanon on board the German corvette Ludwigshafen am Rhein. Germany also economically dominates Cyprus, a strategic military and intelligence asset. The terms that Germany dictated for Cyprus’s economic bailout in 2013 basically gave the European Union control of this island.

Germany has also cultivated a strategic alliance with Turkey. Turkey’s bestselling armed drones are equipped with cameras from the German company Hensoldt. The device could guide missiles developed with German technology to a target. Germany is also moving forward with plans to sell six submarines to Turkey, despite protests from Greece.

Germany also has the largest military contingent in Kosovo—2,350 soldiers—and is fourth in arms exporting behind the U.S., Russia and France. It will probably become number one soon!

And this doesn’t even touch the weapons industries and the land, sea and air power amassing inside Germany itself—or the deployments and power of its European, African and Middle Eastern allies—or the economic power of the European Union, which is dominated by Berlin.

Why is Germany so involved, stretching over the Middle East and much of the world? It is preparing for a whirlwind of destruction.

Germany has been at the heart of several resurrections of the “Holy” Roman Empire spanning more than 1,500 years. It thinks in terms of the Reich, which means empire.

The Allies never rooted out that deep feeling after World Wars i and ii. Near the end of the Second World War, the Allies said, “It is our inflexible purpose to destroy German militarism and Nazism and to ensure that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world.” But look at the map and you can see who is really preparing for war! Just as in 1870, 1914 and 1939, German militarism is about to again disturb the peace!

Germany has surrounded Iran and radical Islam, just as God prophesied it would. Soon that whirlwind is going to start rotating and whirling against the king of the south like a well-armed—probably nuclear-armed—vortex!

A Special Objective

Of all the countries and cities and seas that Germany is spreading its strategy over, there is one city you need to remember in particular. It is right in the middle of that whirlwind of warfare: Jerusalem.

Satan the devil is especially concerned about this city. Why? Because it is a city the Lord has chosen (2 Chron-icles 6:6; Zechariah 3:2). God has chosen Jerusalem: The Bible shows that He has big plans for this city. Satan is obviously going to be fighting that. In fact, it is at the heart of Satan’s plan to plunge the world into destruction!

Study Daniel’s prophecy more deeply, and you see Jerusalem right in the middle of it. After Germany and Catholic Europe conquer the king of the south, they are going to move into the Holy City (the “glorious land” of Daniel 11:41). Putting this together with other biblical prophecies, a strange picture emerges. We explain this in detail in our free booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy. “He shall enter also into the glorious land” in no way indicates the use of force. It appears the Germans will be invited in as peacekeepers.

The fact that the king of the north is able to enter Jerusalem peacefully is peculiar. It doesn’t seem that the Jews would normally allow that. Yet this prophecy says they will.

Is it because that push by the king of the south against the king of the north happens inside Jerusalem? Does it have something to do with radical Islam attacking or controlling a site owned by the Catholics? It certainly seems that something would have to happen to cause the Jews to want Europe to march its armies into Israel to protect them.

Yet study the rest of these prophecies! They show that this is when the world will witness the most devastating double cross in history!

“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh,” Jesus warned (Luke 21:20).

This European empire—which throughout history has conquered Jerusalem several times—is destined to do so again! Jerusalem is inside this whirling vortex of warfare. These European leaders want to conquer that city. They want to gain control of Israel’s nuclear weapons—then they can destroy the Jewish state very easily. Europe is going to betray the Jews and destroy them!

Beyond that, prophecy also reveals that the Europeans will simultaneously strike America and Britain with nuclear bombs! (In many end-time prophecies, God uses Jerusalem to represent all the modern nations descended from ancient Israel—especially the birthright nations, America and Britain. Our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy proves this.) This attack will plunge the world into the worst war in history, and there will be suffering like never before on Earth!

“For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled,” Christ continued. “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (verses 22 and 24).

God is allowing this fearsome empire to rise and to conquer Iran’s Islamist power—so He can use it to punish America, Britain and the other Israelitish nations for all their horrible sins! That is what these events are all leading to.

God recorded these prophecies as a warning to us. We can see events leading toward their fulfillment. Yet our peoples continue to live their own way and will not listen to God!

Daniel 11:45 says, “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain ….” This is talking about the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. This great political and military power, ruled over by a great church, will set up its headquarters in Jerusalem. It represents Satan’s effort to get control of that city because he knows God has wonderful plans for it. So much of this prophecy revolves around Jerusalem.

Invaluable Intelligence

Remember, Daniel 11:40 is a prophecy for “the time of the end.” In Daniel 12, verses 4 and 9 both specify that God sealed this amazing prophecy to be opened only for “the time of the end.” How incredible that we are seeing it being fulfilled right now!

This whirlwind strategy is about to explode into all-out war. In fact, it will spark World War iii!

But there is good news. The same Bible that prophesied this specific strategy with this powerful whirlwind also prophesies in detail that World War iii will end with the glorious return of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. … [W]hen ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:28, 31).

When Christ returns, He is going to judge that “Holy” Roman Empire. Daniel 11:45 concludes by saying that this religious superpower “shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

Has Germany gotten rid of its military inclinations? Not at all. Granted, some of its deployments around Iran are tiny. But, unlike the United States, Germany will not let them dissipate but will expand them mightily! Berlin could multiply these small numbers almost overnight!

This type of intelligence doesn’t make sense to most analysts. They might scoff at the idea that these deployments and arms deals are leading to an attack on Iran—and especially on Israel, America and Britain! This insight can come only from God. And He has now revealed it.

This is not just blitzkrieg. We are about to witness a whirlwind. And it is all prophesied in your Bible: Daniel 11:40!