More Imam Mahdi Madness

Go to Iran Focus to read more about these disturbing developments.

Iran has threatened to strike its enemies with its medium-range missiles if its nuclear weapons facilities come under attack.

“If we come under military attack, we will respond with our very effective missile defence”, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, said on state television.

“The world knows that the Islamic Republic has ballistic missiles in its defense arsenal”.

Iran has a large arsenal of Shahab-3 missiles that can strike over 2,000 kilometres away from their launch sites, easily reaching Israel and United States troops in the region.

“God willing, the 21st century will see the defeat of the U.S. and the Zionists, and the victory of freedom-seeking nations of the world”.

He described the purpose of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution as the “Salvation of Muslims” from the hands of the “oppressive U.S. and Israel”.

“The final goal of the revolution is to create global Islamic rule and a regime of law to be led by the Imam Mahdi”.

In addition, Iran’s former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani described regional ally Syria as the “frontline” of Islam against the policies of the state of Israel, adding that the Islamic Republic had to defend it against enemy threats.

“Syria is the frontline of Muslim countries to fight against the anti-Islamic policies of the Zionists’ regime. We must not allow this front to be injured by the enemy”, Rafsanjani, who currently heads the State Expediency Council, said, the state-run ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.

And now, for the really bad news: The compound that houses the Iranian embassy in Pyongyang is the focus of intense scrutiny by diplomats and intelligence services who believe that North Korea is negotiating to sell the Iranians plutonium from its newly enlarged stockpile — a sale that would hand Tehran a rapid route to the atomic bomb.

In November western intelligence sources told Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, of a clandestine visit to Pyongyang by an unnamed high-ranking Iranian official who offered North Korea a huge amount of oil and natural gas in exchange for help on nuclear research and missiles.

Sources in Tehran say Iran’s Revolutionary Guards recently established their own institutional links with North Korea, bypassing traditional policy channels. “Whatever they’re up to, it’s probably done through the Revolutionary Guards,” commented a western diplomat.

Back in Pyongyang, diplomats are left guessing as people enter and leave the Iranian embassy. One fact, however, is known. Jalaleddin Namini Mianji, Iran’s ambassador who was appointed by the previous “reformist” government, is being recalled. His successor’s credentials are certain to reflect the hard line of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who threatened to wipe Israel off the map.

So, we have the terrible trio of terrorists, Syria, Iran and North Korea plotting together. We also have Hamas, choice of the majority of Palestinians, fidgeting offstage while waiting to join any aggression toward the Jews. Who will be the first to let slip the dogs of war?