Iran is planning a nuclear weapons test scheduled to take place before the beginning of the Persian New Year on March 20. The United Press International, citing sources in Iran, says that Iran is preparing for war. Nuclear war.
The UPI report relies on information obtained from the Iranian Foundation for Democracy, and contains chilling operational details about Iran's war preparations.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard high command issued new orders to Shahab-3 missile units, ordering them to move mobile missile launchers every 24 hours. The order was issued on January 16, in advance of what Iran anticipates will be a US or Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.
The report says the launchers move only at night, and have been instructed to change their positions "in a radius of 30 to 35 kilometers." Prior to the new orders the Shahab-3 units changed position on a weekly basis, the report notes.
Advance Shahab-3 units have been positioned in Kermanshah and Hamadan province, within striking distance of Israel. Reserve mobile launchers have been moved to Esfahan and Fars province.
The report is backed up by another report, this time from the Washington Post. It is reporting that Iran has been preparing a nuclear test tunnel for at least the last twenty months.
Citing officials who have examined classified documents held by US intelligence for 20 months, the drawings include censors for measuring heat in the envisioned 500 yard tunnel, the Post reported.
The newspaper said the officials cannot be certain about how the evidence fits into Iran's nuclear activities, and the word 'nuclear' does not appear on them.
US intelligence believes the documents are authentic but cannot prove it, says the Post.
Ahmadinejad has publicly stated his intention to accelerate the return of the Islamic Mahdi and the end of the world.
In their book, "Al Mahdi and the End of Time", Muhammad Ibn ‘Izzat and Muhammad ‘Arif, two well-known Egyptian authors, identify the Mahdi from the Book of the Revelation:
"I find the Mahdi recorded in the books of the Prophets… For instance, the Book of Revelation says: “And I saw and behold a white horse. He that sat on him…went forth conquering and to conquer.”
‘Izzat and ‘Arif then go on to say: "It is clear that this man is the Mahdi who will ride the white horse and judge by the Qur’an (with justice) and with whom will be men with marks of prostration on their foreheads."
Islam holds that the Mahdi is the rider on the white horse, the first of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
". . . behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. . . And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." (Revelation 6:2,4)
It is an almost iron-clad certainty that a successful Iranian nuclear test would be immediately followed up by a military strike by either the United States of the Israeli Defense Forces.
What can't be known is whether or not the weapon Iran tests, if it does, is the only one it has.
