The West (and the church) should take
Iranian threats seriously 
8 September 2022

It appears the proposed agreement that the EU and US have been trying to renegotiate with Iran is off the table, for the time being. 
 
On the one hand, that is good news. The agreement that was on the table would lift sanctions on Iran, thus enabling billions of oil dollars to pour into Iran – money that would then be used by the radical regime in Tehran to expand Iran’s revolutionary terror in the Arab world, build the technical capacity to build nuclear weapons, and further oppress the opposition movements in Iran. 
 
On the other hand, the real underlying problem has not been addressed or resolved. According to Leiden University Professor Afshin Ellian, the West should take Iranian threats to annihilate Israel seriously. It is naïve to think that the current regime will promote democracy, pull back from its ideological hatred of the Jewish people or scale down its nuclear program. 
 
The threat posed by Iran’s aggressive use of violence to oppose liberty, its threats to destroy Israel, and its expansionist undermining of other regimes in the Middle East are all very real, and present an existential obstacle to world peace. 

The failure of the latest negotiations with Iran presents Western governments with a challenge: how to confront and limit Iran's aggression in the region. A new strategy for promoting peace and security in the Middle East is required. 

One thing Western countries should not do is take action that will undermine Israel's sovereignty and independence, such as imposing a failed Palestinian State that will be governed by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad - movements financed and controlled by Iran. A strong and secure Israel is key to stability and security in the region. The positive development of cooperation in the region – such as the Abraham Accords – must be continued. 

As Christians, a kind of spiritual idealism sometimes blinds us to what is really happening. For too long, many of us have accepted the “politically correct” view that Israel and the Jewish people are the cause of conflict in the region. It is time for us to face the geopolitical realities that Israel and the Jewish people must live in every day. 
 
The fact is that Iran's aggression in the region and the Israel-Palestinian conflict are deeply interconnected. This needs to be recognized and addressed. 

Of course, the military administration in the West Bank must come to an end, and the Palestinians be enabled to live in freedom and dignity. But this can only happen if and when the PLO and the Palestinian leadership generally abandons its goal of liberating Palestine "from the river to the sea", develops a real culture of individual freedom based on the rule of law, and cuts ties with those who sponsor radical anti-Western Islamist ideologies in the region - Iran, Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular. The Palestinian issue can only be truly resolved when Iran is removed from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. 

At the moment, that is far from reality.

In the meantime, there are three things Christians can do: (a) pray that the Lord will raise up new leaders like Cyrus king of Persia, who will defeat the enemies of the Jewish people, and support the Lord's work of physical and spiritual restoration of the Jewish people; (b) encourage our political leaders to develop a realistic and bold strategy for confronting the revolutionary regime in Tehran; and (c) support genuine cooperation and friendship between Jews and other peoples - a spirit of mutual respect that will one day come into full fruition in the Kingdom when Messiah appears.

Times of Israel reports that the UN’s nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it cannot guarantee the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program, saying there had been “no progress” in resolving questions over the past presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites. In a report seen by AFP, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was “not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.”

Iranian threats to destroy Israel should be taken seriously 

Andrew Tucker writes: “According to Prof. Afshin Elian of the University of Leiden, the proposed new JCPOA is a weak agreement that will enable Iran to achieve its revolutionary goals, by providing Iran with hundreds of millions of euros through sale of oil. The JCPOA also lifts sanctions that were imposed by the Security Council on sale of technology to help Iran develop ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. There is another problem. If Iran develops nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles to deliver them, they will come into the hands of the fanatic elite in Iran. It is then just a question of time before other radical regimes to obtain the same capacity. This is deeply dangerous, because all the regimes in the Middle East – even Egypt and Saudi Arabia - are highly instable.” 

Arabs to Biden: Do Not Sign the Iran Deal, It Will Start a War

Khaled Abu Toameh writes at Gatestone: “The closer that the Biden administration moves towards the mullahs in Tehran, the more the US loses credibility in the Arab world. The Arabs seem to have lost confidence in the Biden administration, which is why they are now talking about the need to take matters into their own hands and try to stop Iran from endangering their security and stability. The Arabs also appear convinced that that pouring billions of dollars on the mullahs will eventually bring terrorism and violence to the US and the other Western powers involved in the new deal, if not a major war.”