Oil futures shot above $140 Thursday, June 26 after OPEC’s president said crude prices could rise well above $150 a barrel this year and Libya said it may cut oil production.

Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said he believes oil prices could rise to between $150 and $170 a barrel this summer.

Khelil joined a long list of forecasters making frightening price predictions. Each new forecast — like Goldman Sachs’ recent prediction that prices could rise as high as $200 — causes a jump in prices as speculators drive up the price of oil futures.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues his war of words with Israel, the United States, and now the European Union. Vowing to never throttle back Iran’s nuclear development program, he presents a difficult challenge to the West. In an election year both Obama and McCain find themselves with a common adversary. Obama has said he would like to sit down and talk; McCain isn’t quite that irenic.

Reuters reports than Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on June 26 that Iran’s “enemies” would never succeed in stopping its nuclear activities.

“On the nuclear issue … the enemies were not able to stop our nation and will never succeed in stopping our program,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in late June.
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Ezekiel 38-39 is the famous biblical prophecy that predicts an end time war commonly known as the Battle of Gog and Magog. Ezekiel 38:5 says that Iran will be part of this end time coalition of nations that will invade Israel and "cover the land like a cloud." Current developments in Iran and its neighboring nations indicate that the Gog coalition could be forming before our eyes. Three recent developments in Iran point toward the biblical scenario described in Ezekiel 38-39.

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Two alliances are growing before our eyes in a monumental struggle for control of the Middle East and its vast oil treasure. Russia and Iran are forging stronger ties as evidenced by Russia’s agreement to sell Iran 250 advanced long-range fighters. This news comes on top of Russia’s sale of one billion dollars worth of missiles to Iran a couple of years ago. That’s two huge military deals in a little over two years.

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Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is contemplating a run for the White House, issued a sobering warning against Iran getting the bomb. On July 19, 2007, he noted that an Iranian nuclear strike against the U.S. could be more devastating than the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941. But he then added, "The stakes for Israel are even greater. The use of one or more nuclear weapons against Israel would constitute a second genocide of the Jewish people. He then concluded: "Indeed, the Iranian President does not even require us to read a book like Mein Kampf to understand how serious he is. He enthusiastically makes speeches proclaiming to the world his commitment to genocidal annihilation of another nation. Meanwhile, the civilized world wrings its hands and the United Nations acts with contemptible weakness."

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There seems to be growing talk that Israel and/or the U.S. is planning to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities very soon. Iran has already reached a point of nuclear no return and is within 2 years of having a nuclear bomb. In light of this, a recent headline in Ha’aretz is very illuminating.

Report: Iran has 600 targets for missile strike in Israel if attacked
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Very late, on Saturday, June 23, 2007, the EU Summit in Brussels came to an end. One of the key objectives during the summit was to hammer out a new treaty to replace the failed EU Constitution that was rejected by Dutch and French voters. After some very bitter haggling, primarily instigated by Poland, EU leaders finally agreed on guidelines for drafting a new EU treaty. The primary purpose of the new treaty, according to EU officials, is to strengthen the EU’s foreign policy role. They want a politically strong Europe. The treaty is expected to be ratified by June 2009.
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The coup d’état of Hamas in the Gaza Strip has rattled the entire region, and the shockwaves are reverberating around the world. The dust if far from settling, but in the early stages of this situation, there are two main issues related to what’s happened: the cause and the effect.

Concerning the cause of the coup, some are blaming the U.S., the U.N., the EU and Russia ("the quartet") for their continued support of Fatah, even after the electoral victory of Hamas in the polls in March 2006. Others are pointing to Iran as the chief instigator of the overthrow. This would certainly fit Iran’s MO. If Hamas is able to maintain control, Iran would have Israel in a bind between its two surrogates: Hezbollah to Israel’s north and Hamas to the West. Whether Iran was directly behind the coup or not, they certainly must be pleased to see more chaos in the region, more fear and uncertainty for Israel, and one more headache for the U.S. to deal with.
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On June 3, 2007, in a speech marking the anniversary of the founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made this stunning statement. “Thanks to the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples, the countdown to the destruction of Israel has begun, and we will soon witness the destruction of the Zionist regime.” (more…)