Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday called for the end of the "hegemonic" powers of the United States and Israel, whom he described as "the uncivilized Zionists." He said the world would "soon" see new "global management" by the Twelfth Imam, also known as the "Mahdi," and his deputy, Jesus Christ.
This was Ahmadinejad's eighth and likely final annual address to the opening fall session of the United Nations General Assembly. He is expected to finish his second term in office in June 2013. In each of his past U.N. speeches, he prayed for the soon coming of the so-called Islamic messiah. This time he went much further, offering his most detailed explanation to date of his Shia Islamic eschatology (End Times theology) and his understanding of the coming rule of the Twelfth Imam.
Ahmadinejad told the leaders of the world gathered in Manhattan that he had come this time "to voice the divine and humanitarian message...to you and to the whole world."
"God Almighty has promised us a man of kindness, a man who loves people and loves absolute justice, a man who is a perfect human being and is named Imam Al-Mahdi, a man who will come in the company of Jesus Christ, peace be upon Him, and the righteous," he said. Calling the Mahdi "the Ultimate Savior," Ahmadinejad said his arrival on earth "will mark a new beginning, a rebirth and a resurrection. It will be the beginning of peace, lasting security and genuine life."
Ahmadinejad said the coming reign of the Twelfth Imam on earth "will bring about an eternally bright future for mankind, not by force or waging wars but through thought awakening and developing kindness in everyone." The Iranian leader did not offer a specific timetable, but he did say the "sweet scent" of the Mahdi's global reign "will soon reach all the territories in Asia, Europe, Africa and the U.S."
Despite his insistence that the Twelfth Imam's reign would come without war, Shia eschatology experts say the opposite is true. Islamic theologians say Muslim political leaders today are supposed to set into motion the annihilation of Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it andcreate the conditions of chaos and carnage to hasten the arrival of the Twelfth Imam. Then the Mahdi is supposed to turn all these wars and killings to his advantage and establish justice and peace. As I have both described and documented in my books, it is this Shia End Times theology that is driving Iranian foreign policy today. This is why the mullahs in Tehran are working so hard to pursue nuclear weapons and the means to deliver the, to prepare the way for the rise of this Islamic kingdom or caliphate.
On Sunday upon arriving in New York City, in fact, Ahmadinejad wasted no time in announcing that Israel must be “eliminated” from the earth. He dismissed any concern about a possible Israeli preemptive military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. What's more, he also refused to distance himself from – much less disagree with – the statement of a senior Revolutionary Guard commander in Tehran who said earlier that day that for the first time Iran itself was actively considering a preemptive military strike against Israel and an attack on American military bases and personnel, and that a war with Israel could turn into “World War III.”
Few world leaders are taking Ahmadinejad's eschatology seriously. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, understands it. I've discussed it with him personally. Indeed, it is why he and his senior advisors in Jerusalem are seriously contemplating preemptive military action, to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of Ahmadinejad and men like him who are members of an apocalyptic, genocidal death cult determined to bring about a nuclear holocaust and the End of Days.