Nuclear Negotiations
Leaders of the United States and Iran will meet this weekend in a high-stakes discussion about Iran’s nuclear program. The announcement comes immediately following a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Trump described the planned meeting as Iran’s opportunity to avoid “great danger” by abandoning its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran and the U.S. struck a controversial deal in 2015 during the Obama administration, but the first Trump administration rescinded the deal in 2018 due to Iran’s failure to cease pursuit of weapons-grade nuclear capacity.
Analysis and eternal perspective: Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and previous attempts to restrain its pursuit of nuclear weapons have failed. There is significant skepticism that Iran can be convinced to abandon its nuclear weapons program, making the latest round of planned meetings particularly frigid. The absence of an agreement comes at an intensely volatile time in the Middle East, with Iran backing its proxy Hamas in the war with Israel.
As Jesus followers, you and I have been prayerfully considering the war between Israel and Hamas through a biblical lens that reminds us of both the duty for governing authorities to protect those under their charge (Rom. 13:4) and the eternal value of every person (Gen. 1:26-27).
On the surface, there appears to be little hope Iran will abandon its stated objective to eliminate the Jewish state of Israel. But we serve a God big enough to change the heart of kings (Pr. 21:1)! Let us agree in prayer together that this latest round of negotiations will be a harbinger of peace for the region.
The following article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.