GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 474

Iran’s Getting Help

Getting Chinese Help

We know that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) severely crippled Iran’s ability to make rocket fuel, but it appears that help is on the way for them as we see in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

Two Iranian cargo ships may be seeking to move key chemicals for missile propellants from China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The vessels could depart from China in the next few weeks, it said.

We are depending on information from the usual “sources” that are basically anonymous:

The report is based on “intelligence from security officials in two Western countries.”

And these officials are spilling the beans to let the China and Iran know that it is happening:

This information appears to serve as a clear warning to Iran and China about these vessels.

We’re told exactly what is being shipped and reminded of why Iran needs it:

According to the report, “The Iranian-flagged ships – the Golbon and the Jairan – are expected to carry more than 1,000 tonnes of sodium perchlorate, which is used to make ammonium perchlorate, the main ingredient for solid propellant for missiles.”

Iran has suffered some setbacks in manufacturing missile propellants in the last year. Axios reported in October that Israel had struck 12 “planetary mixers,” which Reuters said were “used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles.”

Further, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said, “Early satellite imagery revealed that Israel had destroyed solid-propellant missile production facilities at Parchin, Khojir, and Shahroud.”

The fuel could really help Iran’s missiles production:

The Financial Times report said that this sodium perchlorate “could produce 960 tonnes of ammonium perchlorate, which is 70% of the propellant for solid-fuel missiles. That amount of ammonium perchlorate could produce 1,300 tonnes of propellant, enough to fuel 260 mid-range Iranian missiles such as the Kheibar Shekan or Haj Qassem.

As noted earlier the shipment is head to Iran by China and the report is hoping that the chemicals don’t make it out of China in the first place:

According to the reports, the chemicals are destined for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

This article in the Financial Times is very detailed and points to a desire for this shipment to be stopped or interdicted by Chinese or other authorities. US President Donald Trump’s administration may be paying attention.

It’s January and it won’t get to Iran for some time so there is plenty of opportunities to stop it:

That ship left the Chinese island of Daishan on Tuesday. The island is just south of Shanghai. As for the Jairan, it “is expected to depart China with 22 containers in early February,” the article read.

It will take three weeks for the ships to reach Iran, it continued. “The officials said the chemicals were loaded onto the Golbon at Taicang, a port just north of Shanghai, and were destined for Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran on the Persian Gulf.

Iran And China Are Being Coy

The chief trading partners are denying or not commenting on the matter:

“Based on data from vessel tracker Marine Traffic, the Golbon spent at least several days off Daishan Island before leaving on Tuesday,” per the report.

The Chinese embassy in Washington said it was not familiar with the situation, and Iran did not comment on the article.

Iran’s second in charge did talk about his country and how it is doing:

Meanwhile, in Davos, Mohammed Javad Zarif, who now serves as Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs, discussed his country’s current position in the region.

Zarif downplayed Iran’s role in backing proxies and also said Israel would continue to face “resistance” even if it had damaged Hezbollah and Hamas.

Zarif then rebuffed charges that Iran is in bad shape:

He also minimized the damage done to Iran’s air defenses in October. “The story about destroying our air defense is a story, and there is a reason behind it... We suffered, but it didn’t mean that we lost our air defenses,” Zarif said.

The facts say otherwise:

Iran and its proxies have suffered setbacks in the production of rocket fuel.

For example, an Israeli raid in September 2024 destroyed a site for producing solid propellant rocket motors in Masyaf, Syria.

This site had been used by the Syrian regime led by then-president Bashar al-Assad and was linked to Iran’s role in the region. Assad’s regime fell on December 8.

Other rocket capabilities were hit:

The raid also destroyed industrial mixers that are used for the solid rocket fuel. Solid rockets can be launched faster than liquid-fueled rockets.

Solid rockets are also cheaper, easier to store and maintain, and easier to roll out and use.

However, they are less easy to control compared to liquid-fueled rockets. These are faster to deploy, so there is less time to detect them being set up and readied for launch.

Overall these moving pieces just highlight that Iran and its proxies are still very dangerous and even if Hamas is finally dealt with, for Israel to be able to feel safe it will take all of these terrorist players to be taken out or seriously wounded. The terrorists that are directly surrounding Israel must be eliminated and those groups that are inside Israel must be removed as well. I know some people still don’t see the events of the Psalm 83 war happening, but what we’re seeing in the Middle East now explains a lot. I’m not sure if a preemptive strike by Israel will trigger the events or whether the coalition of organizations inside the nations described in that war strike out first begins it. Personally, I see these Iranian proxies building up for a massive, unified attack and Iran orchestrating it. Regardless, I think it will setup the War of Gog and Magog where Israel is seen as a people living in peace and safety and without gates and walls. As in all prophecies we’re trying to make the puzzle pieces given to us like nations and conditions, many without timeframes fit the outcomes and , of course what we see in modern times. Nations and people’s names are often different so we have to do some research to even know if they are being fulfilled in our times. But the one constant is the nation of Israel so if we want to know where we are in Bible prophecy, keep your eyes on them. And pray for the peace of Jerusalem.