In a Tuesday UAV strike, the US assassinated the leader of ISIS in Syria, while severely wounding another senior ISIS official who eventually succumbed to his wounds yesterday. The two were traveling outside Jindayris in northwest Syria at the time. Maher al-Agal was responsible for many attacks within the country, and was developing ISIS outside of Syria and Iraq. “The removal of these ISIS leaders will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out global attacks,” said CENTCOM spokesman Col. Joe Buccino.
US President Joe Biden landed in Israel Wednesday, perfectly coinciding with my departure to South Africa. Must be divine timing. He is arriving with a record low approval rating of 33% and a 40-year high inflation rate of 9.1%. Yet, with that record and the knowledge that nearly two-thirds of those in his own party don’t want him to run again in 2024, he is apparently planning to tell Israel how we can make everything happy with the Palestinians. While here, he will visit a site on the Mount of Olives without an official Israeli host – a slap in the face to our government. Then he is expected to encourage a two-state solution, while reaffirming his intention to open a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem.
From Israel, the US president will travel to Saudi Arabia. While there, he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a man he once said must be held accountable for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. That get-together could be awkward. I do not expect that Biden will receive the same kind of celebratory reception when he arrives as that enjoyed by the previous holder of the Oval Office.
Russia continues to strangle Ukraine. Moscow has taken over 22% of the agricultural land and has burned wheat fields in other parts. The 20% of Ukraine that Putin already controls contributes approximately half of the nation’s GDP. If they take the districts of Mykolaiv and Odessa, Ukraine will be left with only 25% of their GDP and no seaports for trade.
Moscow’s relationship with other Central European nations continues to deteriorate. On Monday, the Russian #KILLNET hacking network launched a cyberattack on the Polish Tax Authority causing all sorts of havoc. Tensions with Lithuania were continuing to grow as the Baltic country expanded its restrictions on goods that they would allow to pass through to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. However, just yesterday, the EU caved to Moscow’s pressure and said that it was okay for Russian goods to travel through Lithuania by rail to Kaliningrad. The Vilnius government, which had only been following the EU’s sanctions, breathed a sigh of relief and said that it would not ignore “the positions and assessments” of the other nations.
The coalition of Ezekiel continues to be formed before our eyes. Next Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tehran, where he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. One of the primary purposes for the trilateral summit is the boosting of economic cooperation with Iran. As I talked about last week, the ties between these countries continues to grow. Just on Monday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced that Iran was preparing to provide several hundred military drones to Russia for use against Ukraine. Over just the past several weeks, 25 military cargo flights have been conducted to Russia from Iran. For more information on this growing alliance and how it connects to Ezekiel 38, check out my Breaking News from Tuesday.
Iran continues to supply arms to its proxy militias in Iraq and Syria. However, the actual delivery of these supplies isn’t always successful. On Saturday, a shipment from Iran that had passed through Iraq was destroyed in Deir a-Zor, Syria. In other Iranian weapons news, Iran has reached the capability for the 90% enrichment threshold needed for nuclear bombs. This adds them to the list of other threshold countries who have the technology and resources for nuclear weapons, but has not taken the step of building them yet.
Ahmad Sales, a member of the Popular Defense militia that is connected to Hezbollah in the Golan area, was assassinated in southern Syria. It appears to be an Israeli targeted killing.
A continent away from Syria there was another, much more tragic assassination. During a speech last week, Shinzo Abe, former president of Japan, was killed by an assailant using a homemade shotgun. The assassin, who was captured at the scene, was identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, a former marine of the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Yamagami said that his mother had been bankrupted through her support of the Unification Church, and he resented Abe’s support of the religious group. Abe, however, has never been a member or supporter of the “Moonies”, although at one time he did express appreciation for the group’s “focus and emphasis on family values.”
In an apparent move to leave no crisis unwasted, China protested to Japan for allowing Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai to attend Shinzo Abe’s funeral. Somehow keeping a straight face despite the irony, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accused Japan of using Abe’s death for political manipulation. “Japan does not have a so-called vice president,” he said. “It’s impossible this kind of scheming will succeed.” Please give me a moment while I catch my breath after that story.
Sri Lankan President Gotbaya Rajapaksa fled his country to the Maldives, and then on to Singapore. This happened after protestors stormed the presidential palace and amidst massive demonstrations over economics and shortages of staples like food, fuel, and medicines. Rajapaksa named his prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, as acting president. However, this didn’t satisfy the masses who don’t care for either man, and would like to see the president-in-hiding “in an open prison where they can do farm work.”
Finally, on Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force and the Greek Air Force conducted a joint training simulation. The exercise included both air-to-air combat, as well as refueling operations. While already enjoying close diplomatic relations, the two countries are drawing even closer as they see great opportunities ahead in the area of energy.
