You may view the 5 minute update this week via audio:
In this week’s 5 minute update, we focused on:
1) The Nuclear Deal Agreement between Iran and the P5 + 1 Powers
On July 14, Iran and the United States and its negotiating partners reached an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The economic benefits for Iran are potentially massive. Iran stands to receive more than $100 billion in assets frozen overseas and an end to a European oil embargo and various financial restrictions on Iranian banks. Not only will Iran get access to its frozen assets, it can now start selling its oil on the world market. As part of the sanctions relief, Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, who killed US soldiers, and who conducts foreign operations outside Iran’s borders and directs the Islamic regime’s terrorist activities throughout the world will be part of a list of companies and individuals who will have sanctions against them removed. Diplomats struck the deal after the latest 18-day round of intense negotiations in Vienna, Austria.
The agreement is intended to keep Iran from producing enough material for a nuclear weapon for at least 10 years. Diplomats said Iran agreed to the continuation of a United Nations arms embargo on the country for up to five more years though it could end earlier if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) definitively clears Iran of any current work on nuclear weapons. A similar condition was put on U.N. restrictions on the transfer of ballistic missile technology to Iran which could last for up to eight more years. According to officials, Iran also had agreed to a so-called “snapback” provision under which sanctions could be reinstated if it violates the agreement.
The deal includes a compromise between the United States and Iran that would allow U.N. inspectors to press for visits to Iranian military sites as part of their monitoring duties. However, access at will to any site would not necessarily be granted and even if so, could be delayed, a condition that critics of the deal are sure to seize on as possibly giving Iran time to cover any sign of non-compliance with its commitments. The agreement requires international inspectors to ask Iran’s permission first after which Iran has 14 days to decide whether to grant it. If not, the same group of nations that struck the deal would have another 10 days to make their decision about what to do next. While the international group may have final say, the set-up essentially gives Iran 24 days to drag out the process.
Under the deal, Iran would have the right to challenge the U.N. request and an arbitration board composed of Iran and the six world powers that negotiated with it would have to decide on the issue. Such an arrangement would still be a notable departure from assertions by top Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that their country would never allow the IAEA into such sites. Iran has argued that such visits by the IAEA would be a cover for spying on its military secrets.
As part of the agreement, Iran will cut by about two-thirds the number of centrifuges — which can make fuel for nuclear power stations but also the core of a nuclear bomb — from around 19,000 to just over 6,000. The US Congress has 60 days to review the agreement and can vote to approve or reject it. However, should Congress pass a resolution of disapproval, Obama would veto that resolution.
In an interview with Israeli TV, Obama said that there was no military option to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. Obama said: “A military solution will not fix it. Even if the United States participates, it would temporarily slow down an Iranian nuclear program but it will not eliminate it.” Obama said that a “verifiable” agreement with Iran was the best way forward. He said: “I can, I think, demonstrate, not based on any hope but on facts and evidence and analysis, that the best way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon is a verifiable, tough agreement.”
Speaking from the White House, Obama claimed the deal meets “every single one of the bottom lines” from a tentative agreement struck earlier this year. He said: “Does this deal resolve all of the threats Iran poses to its neighbors and the world? No. Does it do more than anyone has done before to make sure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon? Yes. Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off,” Obama said, claiming it provides for extensive inspections. “This deal is not built on trust. It is built on verification.” Obama added: “If Iran violates this deal, the sanctions we imposed that have helped cripple the Iranian economy -– the sanctions that helped make this deal possible –- would snap back into place promptly. Still, you’re going to hear a lot of overheated and often dishonest arguments about it in the weeks ahead,” he said.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Obama’s comments, warning that the emerging deal would “pave the way” for Iran to attain a nuclear arsenal. He said the deal would also see Iran’s economy boosted and thus enable it to engage in further terrorist activity. However, US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that Israel “will be safer” under the terms of the nuclear deal. Kerry said: “We believe that Israel will be safer with a one-year breakout [to a nuclear weapon] for the ten years [of heightened restrictions stipulated by the deal] than two months,” the time it would take Iran to “break out” to a weapon now, according to many Western intelligence estimates.
Meanwhile, Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog, Yesh Atid head MK Yair Lapid and other political leaders have slammed the nuclear agreement with Iran which leaves much of Iran’s enrichment infrastructure and offensive missile programs intact and depends on trusting the Iranian regime to adhere to the agreement despite a long record of breaking previous promises. Israel argues that the US could have negotiated a better deal. In response, Kerry rejected the Israeli criticism that a “better deal” was possible. “Now there’s no alternative being provided by all these other people,” he charged. “They all say, ‘Oh, why don’t you crush them by sanctions?’ I’ll tell you why, because they won’t be crushed by sanctions. That’s been proven. And because we’ll lose the other people who are helping to provide those sanctions,” he said, referring to UN Security Council members from Europe, Russia and China, among others, who are eager to see the end of Iranian sanctions. Kerry warned that the alternative to the current deal was war.
The United States is drafting a United Nations resolution which supports the agreed upon Iranian nuclear deal. U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power will outline the main points in the agreement to council members. The resolution will replace the existing framework of Security Council sanctions with the restrictions agreed during negotiations in Vienna, Power said. The resolution already has the backing of UN veto-wielding members who took part in the Iran talks — Britain, the United States, France, China, and Russia — as well as Germany.
Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, responded for the first time on the country’s nuclear deal and applauded his country’s negotiating team for their efforts towards achieving the deal. Furthermore, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that in spite of the nuclear agreement, Iran’s policies toward the US and the world will not change. He said: “We have repeatedly said we don’t negotiate with the U.S. on regional or international affairs; not even on bilateral issues. There are some exceptions like the nuclear program that we negotiated with the Americans to serve our interests. We will never stop supporting our friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon,” he continued, referring to the Iranian terror axis in the Middle East. “Even after this deal our policy towards the arrogant U.S. will not change.” After Khamenei spoke his words, the crowd responded by saying, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” In response, Khamenei said that he hoped that God would answer their prayers.
Israel’s security cabinet unanimously rejected the Iran deal and said that Israel reserves the right to take action to protect the state. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the nuclear agreement with Iran will not prevent it from getting a nuclear bomb while granting it sanctions relief to continue its aggressive policies in the region. He called the agreement “a bad mistake of historic proportions” and that it was “filled with absurdities.” For some reason, Netanyahu said, “There is a willingness in the West to accept despotic regimes and seek peace at any price.” Netanyahu added that because of this deal, “Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons because many of the restrictions that were supposed to prevent it from getting there will be lifted.” With the removal of economic sanctions, Netanyahu warned, “Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region.” As a result, Netanyahu said that “Israel is not bound by this deal with Iran because Iran continues to seek our destruction. Israel will always defend itself” Netanyahu said. “If it weren’t for Israel, Iran would’ve had a nuclear weapon long ago.” In further slamming the nuclear deal with Iran, Netanyahu said that as a result Israel must now “first and foremost” rely on itself to defend itself rather than trusting in the support of the United States.
Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett, said: “A terrorist nuclear superpower is born, and it will go down as one of the darkest days in world history.” Israel’s deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely accused Western powers of surrendering to Iran regarding the nuclear deal saying: “This deal is a historic surrender by the West to the axis of evil headed by Iran. As a result, Israel will act with all means to try and stop the agreement from being ratified.”
Israel Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein said, “I regret to say that the agreement signed with Iran expresses a systemic collapse, a hallucination with international sponsorship. Iran is toying with the West and stating openly its intention to continue its murderous plans even against the ones negotiating with it, and that is why this is a dangerous illusion – not just for Israel but for the world’s peace. This agreement is paving the way for Iran to build numerous nuclear bombs while giving tens of billions of dollars to the Iranian terror machine. This agreement is a true collapse of our ‘iron wall’ – in the face of fundamentalist evil. This agreement is the beginning of the collapse of the western wall of resistance to the murderous conquest of the Iranian school of extreme Islam.
In challenging Israel’s disapproval of the nuclear deal with Iran, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said: “Those who would prefer that we simply take military action now against Iran without going the last diplomatic mile: you need to consider that such a response would first destroy the international sanctions coalition,” he said. He added that it would “only set Iran’s nuclear program back by a few years at best, at which point Iran likely would bury a new program deep underground and speed toward an actual nuclear weapon. All of that said, the United States continues to believe – as we have from day one – that no deal is preferable to a bad deal,” he insisted, in direct contradiction to Israel’s own stance on the issue. “We’ve had plenty of opportunities throughout this negotiating process to take a bad deal; we did not, and we will not.” In addressing Israel’s opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal, Blinken said: “I would say to any opponents of the agreement, if we reach it: You’ll have an obligation, too. Here in the United States, you’ll have an obligation to tell the American people exactly what you would do differently, and exactly how you would get it done.”
In response, Netanyahu said: ”the alternative we proposed repeatedly to a failed agreement is to continue strengthening sanctions on Iran and conditioning the removal of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program only if Iran changes its policies. As long as the Iranian leadership continues to encourage cries of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’, there is no reason to make concessions to it,” he said.
An agreement to divide Jerusalem and establish a PLO state is a tribulation event.
The link to these articles are as follows:
1) Iran, world powers agree to nuclear deal
2) Full Text of Iranian Nuclear Deal
3) Iran deal announced, gets over $100 billion in sanctioned assets
4) Deal means ‘permanent prohibition’ on Iranian nukes, insists Obama
5) Obama calls critics of Iran nuclear deal ‘overheated and dishonest’
6) Obama: There is no military option to stop Iran
7) Military strikes won’t end Iran’s nuclear program – Obama
8) ‘Israel is safer’ with Iran nuclear deal, says Kerry
9) U.S. Readies UN Measure Carrying Out Iran Nuclear Deal
10) Khamenei Applauds Negotiating Team on Nuclear Deal
11) Iran’s Supreme Leader: Policy Toward the US Will Not Change
12) Iran’s Khamenei hails his people for demanding death to America and Israel
13) Israel accuses world powers of yielding to Iran for nuclear deal
14) Israel says West has surrendered to Iran with nuclear deal
15) Israeli leaders condemn Iran deal, ‘one of the darkest days in world history’
16) Iran Deal Is ‘Internationally Sponsored Hallucination’
17) PM preempts Obama TV interview pitching Iran deal to Israeli public: We must rely on ourselves
18) Interview: Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu On Iran Nuclear Deal
19) Netanyahu calls Iran nuclear agreement a ‘bad mistake of historic proportions’
20) Netanyahu on Iran deal: The more you read it, the worse it gets
21) PM to Obama: Iran will get nukes, with or without breaking deal
22) Netanyahu to Obama: Deal with Iran funds its terror and war machine
23) Netanyahu: If it weren’t for Israel, Iran would’ve had nukes long ago
24) US Challenges Israel on Iran: What Would You Do Differently?
25) Netanyahu Blasts Open Iranian Defiance After Nuclear Deal
From a Biblical prophetic perspective, the reason why the God of Israel would allow these events to happen is because it will result in the end of the exile of the house of Jacob and the reunification of the 12 tribes of Israel (Ephraim and Judah).
We will to be “watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” and we will not rest until the God of Israel makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62).
Shalom in Yeshua the Messiah,
Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int’l