In their never ending pursuit to threaten the existence of Israel and gain a dominant foothold in the unstable Middle East, new satellite imagery has confirmed that Iran has recently built another permanent military base outside Syria’s capital city complete with hangers used to store missiles capable of hitting all of Israel. The satellite images from a company called ImageSat International have been published by several major news outlets. ImageSat is a professional commercial provider of superior, high-resolution satellite images that are obtained through thier high-resolution Earth Remote Observation Satellites. ImageSat provides photographic information to governments and their defense forces for national security and intelligence purposes and is widely recognized and respected in this field. According to US intelligence experts who have viewed the recent images, the photos show the new Iranian base located only eight miles northwest of Damascus. The photos indicated that the base is being operated by the Quds Force — the special operations arm of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This means additional Iranian troops on the ground in Syria! The photos also show two new white hangars, each roughly 90 feet long by 60 feet wide. Such buildings are commonly used to store short-range and medium-range missiles.
Previous Iranian Base Destroyed by Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously warned Tehran against building any military bases in Syria. Ignoring Netanyahu’s comments, Iran had previously completed a base south of Damascus that was subsequently destroyed by Israeli surface-to-surface missiles in December of last year. This new Iranian base was built to replace that facility and to enable Iran to continue its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his regime’s aggressive bombing campaign in the region around Damascus. U.S. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders stated recently that “Syria is terrorizing hundreds of thousands of civilians with airstrikes, artillery, rockets and a looming ground attack.” Therefore, Iran’s re-establishment of a permanent military base in the region will allow al-Assad to intensify his attacks many of which are known to target civilians who are essentially trapped in the region due to the years of brutal civil war that has devastated the Syrian infrastructure and strained the international community immeasurably. Thus, this is a calculated move by Iran to position themselves as a major force in the region and gain them a strategic advantage in their expressed desire to wipe Israel off the face of the map.
Relevant Bible Prophecies
This situation reminds me of the type of situation prophesized in the pages of Scripture and should concern us as it bears several similarities to certain end-times predictions in the Bible. The prophet Ezekiel, writing more than 500 years before the birth of Christ, predicted that a mighty ruler would form a confederation of multiple nations to launch a massive invasion of Israel known as the Gog and Magog invasion (Ezekiel 38-39). The leader of this invasion, according to Ezekiel will be a ruler with the title “Gog” (Ezekiel 38:1-6). Interestingly, as many Bible teachers have pointed out, Ezekiel makes repeated references to the Gog and Magog armies coming from the “north” and both Syria and Iran are situated to the north of Israel. Moreover, Ezekiel’s list of nations specifically mentions Persia as a leader in the end time invasion of Israel. As history teaches us Persia is the ancient name for Iran. Thus, Ezekiel reveals that Iran (ancient Persia), will assemble an army in the last days to invade Israel to steal the wealth of Israel (Ezekiel 38:11-12). Likewise, while not necessarily referring to the same eschatological event, the book of Revelation also uses Ezekiel's prophecy about Gog and Magog to portray a final end-times attack on the nation of Israel (Revelation 20:8-9).