The United States of America, under the leadership of President Barack Hussein Obama, has effectively abdicated all real current and future leadership within the Middle East arena. Worse still, this abdication of power and influence will knowingly benefit a growing key strategic enemy of America, Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
This almost complete U.S. capitulation has been solidified by the recent signing of the tenuous Syrian ceasefire agreement, on September 9, 2016.
This deal is an affront to U.S. regional power and a betrayal of key US allies within Syria. Under the terms of the now signed agreement the rebels in Syria, more specifically rebels in the Aleppo region, are abandoned by the United States. No wonder John Kerry and Barack Obama were so intent on keeping this deal a secret during the G20, if at all possible.
These rebels now find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place; they are caught between the recent Turkish-Russian rapprochement agreement and this new US-Russian deal, leaving them out in the cold and entirely exposed.
Russia and Turkey are quickly moving to assume complete control of the entire region. The Russian reaction to this now signed deal has been swift. They have immediately demanded that the United States dissolve the joint War Room that they currently operate from the Jordanian capital of Amman.
All US-Western anti-Assad and anti-IS operations run out of this center. Russia and Turkey want America gone from the region and they want the U.S. out as soon as possible. President Barack Obama, true to past form, is acquiescing; in fact it would seem that he can’t move fast enough for them.
The implications of the closure of this U.S. Cent-Com Forward Command are huge for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Officers from each of these countries currently play large and active roles in the Amman command; they are active in the decision making process.
If this command post closes, and every indication is that it will, these countries will effectively be frozen out of all decision making and intelligence gathering related to the Syrian battlefield, and more widely—the Middle Eastern theatre in the general.
It is a typical Russian, old cold-war era strategy of divide and conquer, and Obama has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
The signing of this U.S.-Russian agreement and the potential closure of this forward command center would not simply be a betrayal of friends and allies on the ground in Syria, but the active betrayal of important allies in the region itself. It would leave these allies, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia each very much more isolated against a significantly more unified and now aggressive bloc of enemies; Russia, Turkey and Iran. Israel firmly believes that the demand to close this U.S. Forward Command Center is the precursor to a much wider and more aggressive Russian-Turkish take over in Syria.
The closure of U.S. Cent-Com Forward Command Center would also mean the rapid destruction of the anti-Assad rebels in Southern Syria who are backed by Israel and Saudi Arabia, and by implication therefore the United States. Russia and Turkey will quickly wipe them out in order to ensure continued long term stability for Russia’s puppet regime in Damascus, headed by Assad, and to protect Turkish territorial claims in the area.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Obama and the United States no longer have any influence or power in Syria or in the wider Middle East. Putin and Turkey’s Erdogan now hold all the cards. It will be these two men, Putin and Erdogan, Russia and Turkey side by side, that will chart the course and the future of the Middle East, not the United States, not Europe, certainly not little Israel.
When reading and considering Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, and the Gog – Magog war which it describes in such detail, who can continue to seriously doubt the veracity of Scripture? The alliances depicted by the prophet Ezekiel nearly 3,000 years ago have come together in our time and in our day alone. It is worth noting that in the entirety of history, these alliances have never existed as they do today. The prophecy cannot be in reference to any other time but our time.
This alliance of nations is solidifying and they are actively seeking to alienate and isolate Israel.
Countries that are in loose alliance with Israel, including Saudi Arabia, are being divided. The informal Israeli-Saudi understanding that has existed over the past few years is being systematically undermined and destroyed, leaving each partner very much alone in a hostile Middle East.
The situation will rapidly reach the point that if there was to be a wider Middle East take over by Russia, Iran and Turkey (as we know there will be), these countries will be unable to do anything about it.
This is perhaps why, in Ezekiel, the prophet describes a country called “Dedan,” (modern day Saudi Arabia) voicing only a lame complaint over a huge Middle Eastern invasion which so obviously stands in opposition to its modern day interests,
“Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?” (Ezekiel 38:13)
Is it because Saudi Arabia has become so completely isolated by this point, against such a great horde, that a process of isolation which has now begun and is moving apace, effectively nothing they can do to challenge the Russian-led invasion but voice such a weak and pathetic protestation?: “…have you come to take a plunder?”
The present day actions of Russia and the United States in the Middle East are rapidly making that an imminent prophetic future a modern day reality.
We are witnessing the final stages in a hostile take-over of Syria. This hostile take-over will continue and ultimately find its conclusion, likely one day soon, in utter destruction on the mountains of Israel at the hand of the Lord God Himself,
“Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.” (Ezekiel 39:4)