The Islamic Republic of Iran has ratcheted up its defiance toward Western powers in recent weeks as it seeks to confirm its role as the head of the increasingly Islamist Middle East. Here is a roundup of its recent acts and statements of defiance.

A Gift From Above?

On December 5, Iran announced it had shot down an unpiloted United States spy drone that was in Iran’s airspace, and said the drone sustained only slight damage. American officials say the craft crashed on its own due to a malfunction, but no one disputes the fact that the U.S.’s sophisticated surveillance technology is in Iran’s possession.

On Sunday, Iran said it will not return the drone to the U.S., and called America’s drone mission an “act of war.” On Monday, Iran said it was “reverse-engineering” the American technology, and announced plans to file a lawsuit against Washington, in U.S. courts, over the U.S.’s “invasion” of Iran’s airspace.

If Iran were a lone voice of defiance crying out against Western powers, the situation might be manageable, but Tehran has the backing of two of the world’s most powerful nations. Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council, have vowed to block any move to impose additional sanctions on Iran. Last week, a leading Chinese admiral even spouted off the kind of rhetoric normally heard only from leaders in Iran or North Korea, saying he would be willing to “start World War iii” in order to protect Iran from Western powers.

Moscow and Beijing sent intelligence teams to Tehran this week to study the drone, but Iran is not willing to grant them free access. Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Ali Jaafari said the teams may study it only if they give Tehran the S-300PMU-1 air defense system, which Russia has consistently refused to sell Iran. If Iran’s nuclear program forges ahead, the ruling clerics could use nuclear weaponry to fuel greater defiance against the West. And Russia and China appear bent on allowing it to continue, probably for that very reason.

‘We Will Make the World Insecure’

A member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Committee said on Monday that Iran’s military will “soon” practice its ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.

“Soon we will hold a military maneuver on how to close the Strait of Hormuz,” said Parviz Sarvari to Iran’s isna news agency. “If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.”

Around a third of the world’s seaborne shipped oil passes through Hormuz, making the 4-mile-wide strait the most important oil transit channel on the planet. Such a military drill would demonstrate to the world that Iran is capable of disrupting global markets, and prepared to do so if Tehran is not given its way.

Calling the EU’s Bluff?

While Iran is eager to demonstrate its willingness to “make the world insecure” by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran reckons that Europe has exactly the opposite mentality—and that the EU’s behavior will be governed by fear of upsetting global markets.

In a Sunday statement channeling Iran’s defiance directly toward Europe, an Iranian official said the EU “definitely” will not impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports because such a move would jostle the global crude market. “Our policy is sustainable supply of oil to Europe …. Iran is a major oil producer and any sanctions on our oil export would harm the global market,” Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said. “We (would) have no problem to find a replacement for the EU oil market.”

Qasemi’s statement was a response to calls by EU leaders on Friday to levy more sanctions against Tehran in order to intensify pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. But Tehran is not worried because it has seen that the EU’s vulnerable economies are too dependent on Iranian oil to back an EU ban on it. Germany, France and Britain are striving for such a ban, but nations like Greece have voiced concern over the notion because of their reliance on Iran’s oil.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said, “When they (EU) have so many differences among themselves then they should know the unity they have is only superficial. Each member goes after its own maximal interests … they have this profiteering approach and, with such a rift, such sanctions cannot be imposed.”

But the rift in the European Union will not exist for long.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes this about Iran’s increasingly defiant international behavior and what Europe’s response to it will be:

The stage is being set for an Islamic group of nations to be led by Iran as the prophesied king of the south, which will push at the king of the north, the European Union. “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (Daniel 11:40). Let’s not forget that this is an end-time prophecy. Iran has a foreign policy with a lot of “push.”

Iran’s recent defiance is the latest in a long list of indicators of its belligerent attitude toward the West. Tehran is pushing against Western powers with increasing ferocity, and that push will continue to intensify until a German-led EU reacts “like a whirlwind”—with a decimating blitzkrieg attack. Iran’s jeering about Europe’s lack of unity will be among the catalysts that convert the EU into a unified powerhouse, capable of shocking devastation. The “whirlwind” response of Europe, once it is unified under Germany, will put a violent stop to Iran’s jeering and defiance.

To understand more about the rapidly-approaching fulfillment of these prophecies, and how closely they connect to the best imaginable news, read Mr. Flurry’s landmark booklet The King of the South.