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Bashar_al-Assad (Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom / ABr)

COGwriter

Voice of America reports growing dissatisfaction with Syria’s President Assad:

August 27, 2015

ISTANBUL—A growing number of soldiers and civilians in government-controlled areas of Syria are expressing rare public disaffection with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad — non-combatants as well as the military in traditionally loyal coastal regions are complaining not enough is being done to relieve enclaves besieged by rebels.

There is rising alarm also at the increasing presence of Tehran-backed foreign fighters from Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran, say political activists.

In recent days, foreign Shi’ite fighters along with militiamen in the National Defense Force dispersed young protesters by force in the port city of Tartus, according to activists working with the pro-opposition television station Halab Today.

The station reported a wave of small-scale demonstrations erupted in several coastal towns earlier this week with the focus of the protesters’ ire on Iran’s mounting involvement not only militarily but politically in Syria. Clashes were reportedly especially sharp in the town of Jablah 25 kilometers south of the city of Latakia.

Resentment of Iranian forces inside Syria

Iran, Assad’s closest foreign ally, has supplied crucial support to the regime — from arms supplies to military expertise and funding — and the NDF was trained by Iranian revolutionary guardsmen. …

Even members of the Syrian military showing dissatisfaction with the war

Activists with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring groups that gathers news from informants on the ground, say there is mounting anger at the airbase among officers and soldiers, some of them conscripts from the coast, over their grim plight.

“They are convinced the regime has no serious plan to lift the siege,” according to Rami Abdulrahman, executive director of the monitoring group. They fear the regime will let them face the same fate as the loyalist forces holed up in Al-Tabqa airbase, which fell last summer to extremists of the Islamic State. More than 250 of the defenders were butchered by the extremists after the base fell.

Tartus has been dubbed “the capital of martyrs” because of the high number of men from the town who have been killed serving in the army or in militia forces loyal to the Assad regime.

Latakia, Assad’s hometown, likewise has seen a series of recent street demonstrations. Protests were sparked initially by local anger over the slaying of a prominent local Alawite Colonel Hassan al-Sheikh, a senior air force officer, who was gunned down in a road-rage incident by one of President Assad’s cousins, Suleiman al-Assad. …

It isn’t the first time discontent has brimmed over publicly in loyalist areas. Last year, following a string of mass abductions and slayings by IS of Syrian soldiers, regime supporters poured out their anger in a Twitter campaign questioning how many more sacrifices would have to be made before the civil war ends. Small protests have also been seen in Damascus.

In several interviews President Assad acknowledged his forces have suffered serious reversals in battles with insurgents. During a ceremony in Damascus commemorating Martyrs Day, he referred to rebel gains as the “ups and downs” of war, but he painted a more sober picture of the fighting and urged Syrians to “boost the morale” of Syrian government soldiers. http://www.voanews.com/content/unease-with-assad-regime-on-the-rise/2934457.html

Iran may help prolong the Assad regime.

The Obama Administration has repeatedly called for the overthrow of the Assad regime.  The  USA has funded opposition to Assad.  And directly and indirectly, the Obama Administration has taken steps which led to the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now calling itself the Islamic State.  This was an ‘unintended consequence’ as far as the US government is concerned, but the reality is that is what happened.

Now, the USA has a tentative deal with Syria’s closest ally, Iran.  Presuming aspects of the deal come to pass, Iran will receive tens of billions of dollars of its frozen assets back.  There are NOT restrictions in the Iranian nuclear deal that would prevent Iran from providing military and other support to Syria.

Iran wants to help Syria, because President Assad is a Shi’ite Muslim.  The leadership of Iran are all Shi-ite Muslims.  Since most of the Arab world are Sunni Muslim, Iran seems to feel that supporting Assad will help insure a Shi’ite stronghold in the Middle East and in the Arab world.  Iran hopes to build on that by taking over Jerusalem and then ruling the Islamic world–at least the portions in the Middle East.

Because of its religious beliefs and public statements, I believe that the leadership in Iran is likely to ‘overplay its hand,’ after it gets access to its frozen financial assets. This may be an ‘unintended consequence’ for Iran getting access to to its funds–it may be emboldened to the point it will strike out when it falsely thinks it can do so with little consequence.  Since Iran is NOT the prophesied King of the South (Daniel 11:40-43), and because it is due east of Jerusalem, I have long felt that its leadership will do something that will result in its influence being ‘neutralized.’  This could be the result of civil unrest in Iran or possibly the result of a regional war that Iran would not fare well from (Jeremiah 49:34-38).

Notice that Iran’s official policy is the elimination of the nation of Israel:

August 27, 2015

A senior Iranian official on Tuesday said Israel “should be annihilated,” and that the thawing relations with the West would not translate into a shift in Tehran’s position concerning the Jewish state.

Hussein Sheikholeslam, a foreign affairs adviser to parliament speaker Ali Larijani, told Iranian media that contrary to remarks by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, “Our positions against the usurper Zionist regime have not changed at all; Israel should be annihilated and this is our ultimate slogan.” http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-should-be-annihilated-senior-iran-aide-says/

Perhaps Iran will be in a war that would severely damage the nation called Israel (Isaiah 22:1-14), but also hurt it (Jeremiah 49:34-38).

But what about Iran’s ally Syria?

There are biblical prophecies the tell of the coming destruction to Syria’s capital Damascus. :

7 thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus (Isaiah 7:7-8).

3 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron. (Amos 1:3)

1 The burden against Damascus. “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap. (Isaiah 17:1)

23 Against Damascus. “Hamath and Arpad are shamed, For they have heard bad news. They are fainthearted; There is trouble on the sea; It cannot be quiet. 24 Damascus has grown feeble; She turns to flee, And fear has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor. 25 Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy? 26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord of hosts. 27 “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.” (Jeremiah 49:23-27)

Damascus has been claimed to be the “oldest continuously inhabited city” in the world. And while some have questioned that claim, the reality is that Damascus has not been destroyed to the point of becoming the “ruinous heap” since God inspired Isaiah to record that.  It may be that Iran will be ‘neutralized’ (Jeremiah 49:34-38) after Damascus is destroyed.

This destruction could come as the result of the current war with the Islamic State. It is possible that attacks against the Islamic State will encourage it to attack Damascus. Also if the Assad regime broadly uses chemical weapons and/or becomes engaged in a conflict with Israel and/or the West, that could also fulfill the above.

The situation for Arab world will have ups and downs. The Bible tells of a time of a peace deal that will affect the region, but that deal will not last (Daniel 9:27; see also The ‘Peace Deal’ of Daniel 9:27). The Bible teaches that more war will later come and will include a coalition of peoples such as the Sunni nations in the Arab world (Daniel 11:40-43; Ezekiel 30:2-8).

While few wish to believe it, it will take the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God to truly solve the conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. Those in Syria are in my prayers.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2015 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Prophecy.

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