Podcast # 26: On the Road to Tibet
Scott: My name is Scott Paton. I am talking today with Allan Colston. He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. This is a book dealing with prophecy.
For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is another in the series “Signs of the Times”. Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.
Thanks Scott. It’s been quite a while since we last chatted. As readers of my Blog will know, I have had quite a few health issues lately, but I am happy to say that these are over now.
Scott: Well Allan, I’m certainly glad to hear that. So what do you plan to talk about today?
Well Scott, Iran has been in the news quite a lot lately, so I thought this would be a good time to revisit a subject that we have talked about in various Podcasts over the last few years, and that is about Iran and its quest for nuclear weapons.
Scott: I look forward to hearing what you have to say about that Allan, especially since Iran recently concluded a deal with the West on the subject of nuclear arms. Perhaps you could start off by giving us a summary of what that was all about.
Certainly Scott. My pleasure.
As I explained in our Podcast entitled “Persia Reborn“, the land that we now call Iran was once part of a much greater land empire called Persia, which had a long and proud cultural tradition extending back for several thousand years.
However, their traditional system of Government changed in 1979 when the former leader, the Shah Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown as a result of a series of strikes and demonstrations which had effectively paralyzed the country.
It was then that one of the instigators of this revolution, a cleric by the name of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returned from exile in Paris to become the Supreme Leader of the country that now became known as the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Ayatollah Khomeini showed little interest in developing nuclear energy, and neither did his successor. In fact, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who became the new Supreme Leader in 1989, actually issued a Fatwa, or religious decree in the mid-1990s, banning the use or development of nuclear weapons.
All that changed in 2001, when Islamic terrorists attacked and destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. In response, President George Bush launched bombs and missiles against various Taliban facilities in Afghanistan.
And of course, as we all know, Bush did not stop there. In March, 2003, he ordered US forces to launch an attack on the city of Baghdad, in a mission that came to be known as “shock and awe”, thereby beginning his war against Saddam Hussein and the forces of Iraq.
So in the space of just two years, Iran saw the countries on either side of them attacked by a coalition of Western forces that led to the removal from power of both of their leaders. Clearly, it was time for Iran to act, and act they did.
Scott: So Allan, what did the Iranians do?
Well Scott, although they continue to deny it to this day, the Iranians began their quest to develop nuclear weapons. And as we talked about in our Podcasts titled “Iran’s Nuclear Blunders” and “Nuclear Showdown“, the immediate priority of the Iranian government was to buy time.
The first thing that Iran needed to do was to create an elaborate smokescreen, that was designed to fool other countries into thinking that all they were doing was enriching uranium to the level consistent with that needed to fuel a civilian nuclear power plant.
Secondly, they needed to make sure that the facilities they were building to enrich uranium to the level needed to make atomic weapons, were hidden from the prying eyes of the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
As part of their strategy of stalling for time, Iran first entered into a series of long drawn out negotiations with the international community, over whether they should undertake this enrichment process themselves, or whether they should simply import enriched uranium from other designated countries like Russia or the United States.
These discussions dragged on for years without ever reaching a conclusion, which of course was exactly what the Iranians intended. However, things changed in 2006 when the United States as well as other Western nations imposed severe economic sanctions on Iran.
Over time these sanctions damaged the Iranian economy to such an extent that in November, 2013, they decided to begin a series of formal negotiations with the P-5+1 countries, consisting of China, Russia, France, the UK and the United States, plus Germany and the European Union.
Finally, in July of this year, a formal agreement was reached between the various parties involved that became known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. And it was this agreement that became the deal on nuclear arms that you were referring to.
Scott: Thanks Allan. That really helps me to understand how it all came about. Which brings me to my next question. What did this agreement have to say?
Well Scott, obviously it had a lot to say. In fact the published text of this Joint Plan of Action ran to 159 pages. But in a nutshell, this is what Iran and the P-5+1 countries agreed:
Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium completely, as well as reduce its stock of low-enriched uranium by 98%. It also agreed to reduce the number of its centrifuges by two-thirds for the next fifteen years.
Also, for the next fifteen years, Iran will only be able to enrich uranium to a level of 3.67%, and they will not be able to build any new uranium-enrichment or heavy-water facilities. The existing heavy-water plant at Arak will be converted.
Under this agreement, whatever enrichment activities that Iran does decide to undertake over the next ten years will be limited to a single facility that only uses first-generation centrifuges, and not the more advanced kind which they have been using up until now.
Both parties agreed that all the terms of this agreement would be monitored and verified by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who would be granted regular access to all existing Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as any other sites which the IAEA may wish to inspect in the future.
In return for these conditions, it was agreed that once the IAEA inspectors had verified that Iran had fulfilled all of the above obligations, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations Security Council would be lifted.
This agreement was signed in Vienna on 14 July, 2015. It was immediately hailed by President Obama as a triumph of negotiation, and a victory for diplomacy that would rid the entire Middle-East from the spectre of war with Iran for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately Scott, this is where things began to unravel, and now just four months later, you have to wonder how the various countries involved in these negotiations with Iran could have allowed the situation to have gone so badly wrong.
Scott: What sort of trouble are you referring to?
In answer to your question Scott, there is an old English proverb that says that anyone who sups with the devil needs a long spoon. What this means is that anyone who deals with a devious person needs to be ultra-cautious, for fear of being harmed.
And those who negotiate with Iran have every reason to be concerned, as subsequent events have now proved. For at the very heart of the Iranian approach to these negotiations was their strategy of “Taqiyya“.
According to the Shi’a practice of Islam, “Taqiyya” is a religious dispensation which permits an individual to commit illegal or even blasphemous acts, as a means of deceiving another in order to gain a future advantage.
The ink was hardly dry on this agreement when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani went on local TV to say that Iran had got everything that it wanted, plus a lot more. For example, his version of this agreement went as follows:
• Our prime objective in entering into these negotiations was to keep our nuclear program intact, and to have all sanctions lifted. This we have achieved.
• At first they wanted to limit us to 100 centrifuges. Now we keep 6,000.
• They wanted restrictions for 25 years. Now it is 8.
• First they said we could only have first-generation centrifuges, now we can have IR6, 7 and 8 advanced centrifuges.
• At first they said that the heavy-water plant at Arak had to be dismantled. Now it will remain under certain conditions.
• At first they said that the underground nuclear facility at Fordo had to be closed. Now it will stay open and we will keep 1,000 centrifuges there.
• All sanctions, including on missiles, will be lifted on the day of implementation. Not just suspended, but lifted completely.
In fact President Rouhani presented such a distorted picture of the final agreement, that one had to wonder whether he had ever paid any attention to the details of what had been negotiated in Vienna. But worse was to follow. Much worse.
Scott: Why do you say that, Allan?
Well Scott, as President Obama went to great lengths to explain to both Chambers of Congress, this agreement is founded not on trust, but on monitoring and verification. In other words, the inspectors of the IAEA will verify that Iran does what the agreement says.
In fact this assurance by Obama was a complete farce. For example, the agreement states that in the event of Iranian violations, sanctions will be re-imposed by all the nations involved. The term that Obama used was that these sanctions would “snapback” into place.
However, Article 37 of this agreement explicitly states: “Iran has stated that if sanctions are reinstated in whole or in part, Iran will treat that as grounds to cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part.”
But it is not just a question of whether or not sanctions can or will be reinstated if Iran fails to abide by the terms of this agreement Scott, the harsh truth of the matter is that the immediate outcome has already begun to fulfill Iranian expectations.
Scott: Can you give us some examples?
Well Scott, as President Rouhani told the Iranian people, his primary purpose in entering into these negotiations was to remove the international sanctions. He had good reason to gloat, for without even waiting for Iran to do anything, numerous nations have already dropped these sanctions altogether.
The United Kingdom has already lifted the ban on 22 Iranian banks and companies that were previously blacklisted. German trade with Iran has risen by 33 percent, making it the Islamic Republic’s third largest trading partner after China.
China has agreed to help Iran build five more nuclear power reactors. Russia has now agreed to deliver S300 anti-aircraft missile systems which were previously banned under the sanctions, and is also engaged in talks to sell them Sukhoi fighter planes.
France has sent its Foreign Minister as well as a 100 person strong delegation to negotiate new business deals, including projects to double Iran’s crude oil exports. India’s trade with Iran has jumped by 17 percent, and is negotiating to build a massive sea and rail hub at the Iranian port of Chah-Bahar.
So as you can see Scott, the international community have not even waited for the starting gun to go off before jetting off to Iran to promote their own trade and commercial interests. So what hope is there that Iran will keep to their nuclear obligations now that sanctions are unravelling by the day.
Scott: So tell me Allan, if the previous sanctions are unravelling as you say, do you think that Iran will continue to honour its nuclear obligations under this agreement?
Well Scott, if the past is any guide, the world should not hold its breath. Iran has not stuck to the agreements it made in the past, so there seems little reason to believe that they will start doing so now.
Take for example the recent missile test conducted by Iran. The agreement had hardly been completed when Iranians announced that they had test-fired a new precision-guided medium-range missile that was capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.
This was a clear violation of the 2010 Security Council resolution banning ballistic missile tests by Iran, as well as a violation of the JCPOA agreement in which they agreed not to launch ballistic missile tests for the next eight years.
So in terms of the principle of “Taqiyya” which I described earlier, this was a classic example of “Gotcha“. “You gullible Westerners fell for the trap we laid out for you“.
That may seem bad enough Scott, but the “worse” that I was referring to earlier, is that Iran has not even agreed to the conditions of the agreement announced with so much fanfare by President Obama.
Scott: What do you mean by that Allan?
Well Scott, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, who is the final authority on all matters involving the Islamic State of Iran, has not only not approved the terms of the JCPOA agreement, but he has added new conditions since the original agreement was finalised.
In a letter which he dictated to the Iranian President Rouhani after the agreement had been announced, Khanenei prescribed nine new conditions that would have to be met by the JCPOA, and if they weren’t, Iran would cease to be bound by the terms of the agreement.
Here again we see the principle of “Taqiyya” at work. “We set new conditions that you have to meet, and if you don’t then we will scrap the deal, at the same time telling the world that you were responsible“. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place!
So the bottom line announced by the Tehran Times in its edition dated November 7, 2015, is that any sanctions imposed, or re-imposed, by anyone under any circumstances at any time, will invalidate the agreement, and absolve Iran of the need to fulfill its side of the deal.
Scott: So Allan, let me ask you this. Based on what you have talked about today, do you think that Iran will one day get nuclear weapons?
That’s a good question Scott. Obviously only time will tell. But you may be interested in something that took place some forty years ago. It happened in August, 1974, on the road to Tibet.
I was living in India at the time, and to escape the blistering heat of the Southern plains, I decided to travel up to the mountain kingdom of Kashmir. I ended up spending the entire summer there, moving from one hill station to another.
At the time that this incident took place, I was staying at a tourist bungalow at the hamlet of Sonamarg. This exquisite retreat is located along the main road that winds its way from Srinagar in Kashmir, through the Zanskar mountains of Ladakh, up to the western plateau of Tibet.
On the day in question, the monsoon had begun in earnest, and the rain was coming down in torrents. I had met two students from England a few days earlier, and to escape the deluge the three of us were sitting on the covered veranda of the tourist bungalow, drinking tea.
As we talked, our discussion was interrupted by the arrival of an amazing-looking man. To me, he looked like the living image of the 19th century Russian mystic, Grigori Rasputin. He simply walked in out of gloom, and at our invitation, joined us at our table.
He was dressed in thick sheepskin clothing held together by a large black leather belt. Covering his head was what looked like a fisherman’s oilskin hat, and on his feet were black wellington boots that reached up almost to his knees. He seemed to be in his mid-thirties.
But the most striking feature about this man was his thick black beard and his piercing dark eyes. Once he had settled down and accepted our offer of a hot drink, we asked him where he had come from and where he was going. His answer astonished us all.
He said that he had come from France, and was on his way to visit his Guru who lived in Tibet. When we asked him how he had travelled, he said that he had covered most of the journey overland and on foot, hiking through fields and forests to avoid border officials along the way.
When we asked him what route he had taken, he delved into the heavy rucksack that was slung across his back, and pulled out a large map that was covered in plastic to protect it from the rain. He opened it up carefully and spread it out in front of us.
As he was pointing out the various countries he had travelled through en route, I was struck by an unusual feature which appeared on the map. It was a series of black crosses which were scattered over the map in what seemed to be a haphazard fashion.
You’ll never guest what they were Scott.
Scott: Well I have to admit that you’ve got me there, Allan.
When I asked him what they were he replied: “The crosses mark the places where future nuclear explosions are going to take place“. When I asked him how he knew, he said that his Guru had shown this to him on a previous visit.
Scott: That’s amazing Allan. So where were these black crosses located?
Well this is where things get a little vague. You have to remember that this meeting took place over forty years ago. The other thing is that he sat on the opposite side of the table from me, so the map was upside down. But I remember seeing about five or six of these crosses.
Of course, from the vantage point of my present research, I wish I could have had the chance to ask him more questions. But unfortunately, no sooner had he had finished his drink when he got up and said he needed to be on his way. He vanished into the gloom as mysteriously as he came.
Scott: So tell me Allan, do you remember anything about where these crosses were located?
As I say Scott, from where I was sitting on the verandah that day, the map was pretty much upside down. However I do recall the various countries that were marked on the map, and the crosses appeared to be in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As you can imagine, I have thought about that meeting many times over the years, especially in view of my own research into future prophetic events. And from my point of view, this does seem to fit in with Biblical End Time prophecies.
Of course, even if these crosses do mark the location of future nuclear explosions, they don’t indicate the source of these attacks. But based on what we know today, Pakistan already possesses nuclear weapons, and Iran may be close to getting them in the near future.
So to get back to your earlier question Scott, if I were a betting man, I would lay good odds that there will come a time when Iran will succeed in getting nuclear weapons, and will use them in the course of hostilities with neighbouring nations.
Not a pleasant prospect Scott, but as you have heard me say many times, I believe we are now living in the End Times, and that the time of Great Tribulation predicted by Jesus and the Old Testament prophets, will soon be upon us.
Scott: Thanks Allan. This has been a fascinating insight into events that have been taking place recently in Iran, and how they may fit in with ancient prophecies of the “End Times”.
You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”. Do join us for our next Podcast in the series titled “Signs of the Times”.
