The following articles from today's international news sources further point to what in prophecy is the union, or axis of Iran, Russia and China.
Perhaps someone should have reminded Mrs. Clinton that not only does China not take threats or warnings from any country lightly, but it is also the U.S.'s biggest lender. The U.S. owes the Chinese somewhere around 2 trillion dollars, and is also the world's biggest holder of U.S. treasuries.
China has a 2 million strong standing army, that is being prepared for the eventual confrontation with the U.S. They, unlike the U.S. military, are completely intact, not stretched thin around the world, and have some of the world's most advanced weapons systems. Today, besides being warned by Clinton, there was also news that the U.S. would go ahead with an arms shipment to Taiwan, that will further enrage the Chinese.
On the other hand, you also have Russia, who today also made news by test flying their newest version of a 5th generation military plane that can go toe to toe with the F22 American Raptor (which by the way funding for the Raptor project was just pulled last year by the Obama adm.)
Clearly we are seeing posturing by countries both in the west and the east, and just as I have written about in my first book, "The Forty Letters of Preparation for the End of an Age," these two sides, east and west, will face off over and after Iran is attacked.
The stage is being set, are you prepared???
Clinton: China risks isolation over Iran
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 51 mins ago
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 51 mins ago
PARIS – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned China on Friday it risks diplomatic isolation and disruption to its energy supplies unless it helps keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.s
Speaking in Paris, Clinton said she and others who support additional sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program are lobbying China to back new U.N. penalties on the Iranian government.
She said she understood China's reluctance to impose new penalties on Iran, its third-largest supplier of oil. But she stressed that a nuclear-armed Iran would destabilize the Persian Gulf and imperil oil shipments China gets from other Arab states in the region.
There is a new push for sanctions at the U.N. because of Iran's continued refusal to engage on the matter with the five permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and Germany.
Administration officials have invited new talks with Iran, but with no sign that Iran wants to do business, the focus has turned to penalties.
"As we move away from the engagement track, which has not produced the result that some had hoped for, and move forward on the pressure and sanctions track, China will be under a lot of pressure to recognize the destabilizing impact that a nuclear-armed Iran would have in the Gulf, from which they receive a significant percentage of their oil supplies," Clinton said.
She spoke a day after the U.S. Senate approved new sanctions against Iran that would extend U.S. prohibitions on business dealings with Iran. The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran and extremely limited commercial interaction, all as a result of the rupture in 1979 when militants took over the U.S. Embassy.
Clinton aid the legislative efforts do not conflict with her work to line up other countries for separate international sanctions against Iran.
"We will do what we can to direct their legislation in a way that supports our efforts internationally," Clinton said in Paris.
"We're going to work as hard as we can to get the strongest possible resolution," at the U.N., Clinton said.
The United States is the most visible leader in the new push for U.N. Security Council sanctions, and Clinton spent much of her time in Europe this week lobbying major powers whose support she needs to pass and enforce new economic penalties. Some of the additional measures that will be proposed target elements of Iran's powerful militia structure, U.S. officials said.
The Security Council has approved three previous sets of restrictions and penalties related to Iran's defiance of international demands for assurances about its nuclear program. The punishments have mostly been mild and directed at government and business entities tied to the nuclear program. In response, Iran has accelerated its work to enrich uranium.
"We certainly expect to come up with an even firmer fourth resolution," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said following a meeting with Clinton on Friday.
The Obama administration has said Iran appears bent on developing nuclear weapons, although Iran claims its nuclear work is peaceful. Iran is thought to have stockpiled more than enough nuclear material to manufacture a single bomb, and more is being made daily.
The risks of an Iranian bomb are manifold, Clinton said.
"It will produce an arms race," in the Persian Gulf, and Israel will feel its very existence threatened, Clinton said in response to a question from an audience member during a speech at a French military academy. "All of that is incredibly dangerous."
The United States has cautioned Israel publicly against a pre-emptive strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities, arguing that such an attack would invite an arms race and retaliation.
China has traditionally resisted U.N. Security Council sanctions, saying they are counterproductive and harm efforts to persuade Iran to prove its claim that the nuclear program is peaceful.
Clinton met Thursday in London with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to make the case to move ahead with sanctions at the United Nations. U.S. officials said Yang's response was noncommittal.
In Paris, Clinton said her message to the Chinese had been this: "We understand that right now it seems counterproductive to you to sanction a country from which you get so much of the natural resources your growing economy needs. But think about the longer-term implications."
The United States risked tension with China on a different matter, with formal word Friday that an arms sale to Taiwan will go ahead. The deal would provide more than $6 billion in weapons sales to the self-governing island the Chinese claim as their own.
Also see: Obama's arms sale to Taiwan likely to anger China
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video link to today's Russian stealth plane maiden flight.
Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 29, 1:59 pm ET
MOSCOW – Russia's first stealth fighter intended to match the latest U.S. design made its maiden flight Friday, boosting the country's efforts to modernize its rusting Soviet-built arsenals and retain its lucrative export market.
The Sukhoi T-50's flight comes nearly two decades after the first prototype of the U.S. F-22 Raptor took to the air, and Russian officials said it will take another five years for the new jet to enter service. Still, the flight marked a major step in Russia's efforts to burnish the faded glory of its aviation industries and strengthen a beleaguered military.
The sleek twin-engined jet closely resembling the Raptor flew for 47-minutes from an airfield at Sukhoi's production plant in the Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday. Development of the so-called fifth-generation fighter has been veiled in secrecy and no images of it had been released before the flight.
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