Does The Death of Iran’s President Increase the Odds of War?

Iran’s president – along with the minister of defense and other top officials – were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Despite initial fears of assassination, it seems like an unfortunate accident – sudden onset of storms during the flight over mountains with a thick fog that led to the crash. Accident or not, the nation’s leadership will suddenly change shortly after many drones and missiles have been launched at Israel. Will the coming change of leadership decrease the peace or ensure a war?

CNN today writes: “President Ebrahim Raisi has died in office, leaving the Islamic Republic’s hardline establishment facing an uncertain future. An ultraconservative president, 63-year-old Raisi was killed Sunday, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other high-ranking officials, in a helicopter crash…. [forcing new elections when] The population has by and large lost faith in the idea that change can come through the ballot box.” Will Iran’s youth, tired of sanctions and poverty, start a revolution to undo the theocracy of the last revolution in 1979? Unlikely – but just like in America, Iran is more polarized than usual, and one side may take the nation in a more extreme direction. President Raisi was a hardline Islamic fundamentalist in line to replace the 85 year old Supreme Leader Khamenei. Raisi was known for “quashing the 2022 mass protests that sought to challenge repressive laws.”

What will happen if the same group continues to stifle dissent and decides to unite the nation in a war against Israel? If successful Iran could become the heroes and undisputed leaders of the Islamic world for coming to the defense of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. Could they form an alliance with other Islamic nations, similar to what happened in 1948, 1967, and 1973 – to defend fellow Muslims and to defeat Israel? Because of events in Gaza, the odds are much higher than at any point in the last fifty years.

Many Muslim nations have terrible relations with Israel. Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Syria may top the list – but Turkey’s dictator Erdogan has also been souring on Israel in recent years. Egypt, one of Israel’s least hostile neighbors in the Islamic world since the peace accords in 1979, is rapidly reducing the friendship between the two countries.

“Egyptian officials threatened on May 14 to downgrade their country’s relationship with Israel over their opposition to Israeli military actions in the southern Gazan city of Rafah. The threats come more than four decades after Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979. Adding to the new nadir in Israeli-Egyptian relations, Egyptian officials signaled they were considering recalling Egypt’s ambassador to Israel. Earlier in the week, Egypt announced plans to join South Africa’s ‘genocide’ case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.”

For what it’s worth, almost every source of prophecy also suggests a much larger war is coming between the Islamic world and the West. Bible prophecies describe an anti-Christian religion that will attempt to rule from Jerusalem, persecute Christians and Jews, deny the divinity of Christ and behead those who refuse to convert in the end times. What did John see when he warned us about the mark of the beast in Revelation?

Iranian prophecies said that not long before the final war with Jews and Christians “a tall black man will lead the greatest military power in the West.” He will carry a sign from the third imam (Hussein) and Iranians will know that “he is with us.” The phrase “he is with us” in Iran’s language (Farsi) is pronounced “oh-bah-mah” – perhaps describing Barack Hussein Obama?

Nostradamus also predicted what appears to be a third world war between Islam and the West. He described the use of nuclear weapons on at least four cities, and that the war should be over no later than 2029. What side will Russia and China be on? Iran and Turkey will lead an Islamic alliance. Israel will be destroyed, with a second holocaust, as a first step before the Islamic invasion of Europe.

Or maybe such prophecies mean nothing, the Islamic world will forgive and forget what Israel is doing in Gaza, and universal peace will spread from the Middle East through Ukraine and Russia through East Asia and around the world. What do you think the next year will bring?