More news...

There are a few more stories (in addition to the persecution headline below) making the prophetic news today:

"Turkey to give Hizbullah weapons"

Turkey and Iran are rumored to be helping Hizbullah obtain new weapons, Italian daily Corriere Della Sera reported on Wednesday evening.

Sources told Corriere Della Sera that Turkey will "send sophisticated weapons, rockets and guns to Syria, that will end up in Lebanon," where, the Iranian Army will ensure the weapons are transferred to Hizbullah.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards "will facilitate the transition, ensure safety, watch loads on the routes, and provide support to the border," the report said.

The Iranians reportedly want to build a weapons network similar to that in the Sudan, and hopes to help Hamas, as well.

The Italian newspaper reported that Western intelligence sources "view the Turkish-Iranian plot with concern, as they are obvious risks to safety."

This is just more evidence that Turkey is aligned squarely against Israel - exactly as the prophetic scriptures indicated.

"Netanyahu rejects peace talks based on 1967 borders"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday rejected a Palestinian demand that direct negotiations be based on a statement by the Quartet confirming its position that the future Palestinian state will be based on the 1967 borders.

The Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - issued the statement after a meeting in Moscow on March 19. It calls for 24 months of talks between Israel and the PA that would result in an agreement on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The statement said that the founding of the Palestinian state would end the occupation that began in 1967. It also called on Israel to institute a total freeze of construction in West Bank settlements and to refrain from home demolitions in East Jerusalem. The declaration even went so far as to mention that the international community does not recognize Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem.

Palestinian journalists who met with Abbas this week said they came away with the impression that he is determined to move forward in negotiations with Israel but will not back down on long-established Palestinian positions. Despite international criticism of his refusal to begin negotiations, Abbas is insistent on an agreed framework for discussions prior to the start of direct talks.

Below, we see more on the build-up to war in the Middle East:

"USS Truman posted opposite Hormuz as Iranian threats spiral"

To meet increasingly defiant Iranian threats to US regional military forces, Washington has detached the USS Truman carrier from support duty for Afghanistan in the Arabian Sea and reassigned it to Dubai opposite the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz with thousands of marines aboard.

Reporting this, DEBKAfile's military sources note that the Iranian submarine attack on a Japanese oil supertanker last month near Hormuz underlined the urgency of heightened security for keeping the vital straits open.

Our Iranian sources note that Tehran keeps track of - and responds instantly with fleet deployments of its own - to every US naval movement in a broad radius from its shores - from the Red Sea in the North, to the Gulfs of Aden and Oman in the East, the Horn of Africa in the west and the southern approaches to the Indian Ocean.

DEBKAfile of April 22, 2010, first revealed that Iran was preparing a fleet of speedboats for striking American air carriers. (To read this article click here.)

The USS Truman Strike force carries 6,000 marines and sailors and Carrier Wing Three consisting of seven Battle Axe squadrons. It leads a flotilla of four more vessels: the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy, the guided missile destroyer USSWinston S. Churchill, the USS Oscar Austin destroyer and the guided missile destroyer USS Ross.

Iran will most likely respond to this recent action by the U.S.

The build-up to war continues.