Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
(photo via free-images.com)
Donald Trump continues to boast about US military dominance in Iran, while Israel states that more neutralization is its objective:
March 14, 2026
- President Trump said late Friday that Iran is “totally defeated and wants a deal” but not one he “would accept.”
- The statement came shortly after Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. had bombed Kharg Island, a vital oil hub that serves as Iran’s main oil export terminal. U.S. Central Command said Saturday morning that the U.S. had struck 90 military targets on the island, but preserved its oil infrastructure. An Iranian official said Saturday that oil exports are “continuing as normal.”
- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says Iran’s missile and drone launches have been reduced sharply, and its new supreme leader is “wounded and likely disfigured.” Later, Vice President JD Vance told reporters, “We know that he’s hurt. We don’t know exactly how bad, but we know that he’s hurt.”
- Iran’s attacks continue to gridlock shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the U.S. Navy could start escorting tankers through the strategic waterway as oil prices remain over $100 per barrel. …
Israeli military says there are still “many objectives to strike, many threats to neutralize”
An Israeli military spokesman said Friday that while Israel had “achieved significant results” in its ongoing operations against Iran and its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, there were still “many objectives to strike, many threats to neutralize.”
“We have achieved significant results against the Iranian terror regime, which remains destabilized, and we continue to undermine and strike it,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Brigadier Gen. Effie Defrin said Friday. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-kc-135-plane-crash-iraq-us-deaths-strait-of-hormuz-no-end-in-sight/
While Iran may want a deal, saying it is “totally defeated” is not accurate. And we see that Israel’s goal is neutralization of Iran.
PCG’s The Trumpet site, posted the following related to Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Iran:
Guttenberg: Iran ‘Not as Easy’ to Bring Down
March 13, 2026
Will the war in Iran spiral out of control? Will the United States pull out and leave chaos behind?
Europe is greatly concerned.
For years, former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has warned about Iran. Now, Israel and the United States are confronting the Iranian regime. …
“It is clear that Iran is obviously not as easy to bring to its knees as the other warring parties had imagined,” Guttenberg warned on March 10 in the German-language podcast Land in Sicht (Land in Sight). He added:
This war is beginning to spread to the region, to the wider Middle East. The supreme ruler of the United Arab Emirates has stated that we are at war. … We are now seeing the full impact on the markets. Oil prices are moving above $100 a barrel. Of course, all of this is now having an impact that extends far beyond the region and the stock markets are also starting to fall accordingly. So we are in a situation that can no longer be confined to this region alone and where voices are becoming louder, especially in the U.S.A., saying that you may have miscalculated the question of what will actually happen after this first major military wave. …
There is a huge potential for escalation in all of this and that has to be recognized. And I believe that the objectives were not always very clear at the beginning. That’s the mildest formulation I can think of. So I think we can make the accusation, as is so often the case with acts of war in recent decades or even in the last century, that beyond the actual attack, we have the feeling that the scenario planning was rather unclear.
To eliminate the Iranian threat would require breaking the will of the Iranian regime. A handful of drones, sea mines and missiles are enough to jeopardize the Strait of Hormuz.
Is the U.S. willing to fight until the Iranian regime’s will is broken? That cannot be accomplished in weeks or even months of limited military engagement. As Trumpet senior editor Joel Hilliker wrote on March 11, “This threat will persist as long as the Iranian regime remains in power. And regime change no longer seems to be the goal of this war. Just moments after oil spiked to $120 a barrel, Trump called the war ‘very complete, pretty much.’”
But as Guttenberg pointed out, Iran’s remaining weapons are still in the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That means Iran can continue to exert its brutal influence on its own population of around 95 million people. Furthermore, “the appointment of Khamenei’s son as the supreme religious leader is a sign that we cannot assume that these structures are already in ashes,” Guttenberg warned. “Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is characterized by the fact that he has a special closeness to and trust in these Revolutionary Guards, which means that there is still a certain degree of stability.”
He warned that Iran will seek revenge not just in the form of concentrated counterattacks in the Gulf region and the targeting of the Strait of Hormuz but also through global terrorism. “And Europe is not immune to that either,” Guttenberg added.
U.S.–Israel Division
While the U.S. and Israel may be working hand in glove in this conflict at the moment, they are pursuing very different goals. Guttenberg explained:
The real difference, as I see it, is that Israel naturally has an interest in wiping this threat that has persisted for decades—and it was a veritable and understandable threat. We must not forget that, in all this, namely that the Iranian leadership has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map, that it should be destroyed. And that this threat should be dealt with by simply bombing the country for a few days and then saying, “Well, then everything is fine. … We’ve taken out the big bad guy at the top and a few more underneath and then things will shake themselves out.” … The Israelis don’t trust that. You hear that again and again and they say that it must actually reach much further, because Iran’s influence naturally also extends to the so-called proxies.
Iran has terrorist proxies in Yemen, the Houthis; in Lebanon, Hezbollah; in Iraq, Shiite militias; in the Gaza Strip, Hamas; and other terrorist groups and individual jihadists around the world.
Guttenberg does not agree with those who believe Israel pulled the U.S. into this war and controls the larger military partner, in a tail-wagging-the-dog scenario. That’s why he believes the U.S. could pull out at any moment and leave the region in chaos. …
Since the 1990s, Mr. Flurry has warned that the king of the south in this prophecy is Iran, and Mr. Armstrong explained years before that the king of the north refers to a German-dominated resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.
These two power blocs will clash, triggering “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” (Daniel 12:1). https://www.thetrumpet.com/33891-guttenberg-iran-not-as-easy-to-bring-down
Yes, Herr Guttenberg is correct that Israel wants Iran weakened more than Donald Trump may be willing to do.
As far as Iran being the prophesied King of the South, however, of Daniel 11:40-43, PCG remains wrong about that. See also: Is the Future King of the South Rising Up?
For over a decade I warned that Iran was not the coming King of the South and that Iran would somehow be neutralized. Here are parts of three of many posted statements related to Iran:
According to the Bible, the King of the South (Daniel 11:40) will rise up and we will see if this happens sometime after an Israeli conflict with Iran. Since Iran is not destined to be the King of the South, … I have long written that Iran will somehow be neutralized (through a conflict involving Israel and/or internal strife, etc.) … (Thiel B. Obama arrives in Israel and meets with Netanyahu. COGwriter, May 20, 2013)
I have long believed that Iran is a threat that will one day be ‘neutralized,’ as I believe it will overplay its hand. (Thiel B. After second tanker incident, Israel says it is ready to attack. COGwriter, August 5, 2021)
As posted earlier this month, the loss of its Supreme leader and several of its top military and political leaders is a partial neutralization (see Iran lost many top leaders: Let’s call that a partial neutralization).
So, what is going on with Iran?
Steps towards its neutralization as the dominant military power in the Middle East.
It has been reported that Iran has been partially neutralized:
Iran lost many top leaders: Let’s call that a partial neutralization
March 1, 2026 …
Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed Saturday in an unprecedented, joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury — which President Trump said would give Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.” …
Israeli officials told Fox News that more than 40 top Iranian security and regime figures were eliminated in the opening strikes …, and as many as 10 high-ranking leaders were killed in the initial strike on Khamenei’s fortified compound. …
The loss of its Supreme leader and several of its top military and political leaders is a partial neutralization.
Trump says Iran’s leadership ‘neutered’
6 March 2026
US President Donald Trump told CNN in a phone interview on Friday that Iran’s leadership has been “neutered” and that he is searching for new leadership that will treat the United States and Israel well, even if it is a religious leader and not a democratic state.
“Iran is not the same country it was a week ago … A week ago they were powerful, and now they’ve been indeed neutered,” Trump added. https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Trump-says-Iran’s-leadership-‘neutered’/65821157
March 13, 2026
U.S. Central Command said Friday that “the Iranian regime has been the number one threat to peace and stability in the Middle East for years.”
“U.S. forces continue to take decisive steps to neutralize Iran’s power projection capabilities,” it added on X, posting a new video showing American airstrikes on Iranian military infrastructure. https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/us-iran-israel-war-latest-march-13-live-updates
While Iran has been partially neutralized, Israel wants the neutralization more complete. Even for the US Central Command, neutralization is the goal:
The Iranian regime has been the number one threat to peace and stability in the Middle East for years. U.S. forces continue to take decisive steps to neutralize Iran’s power projection capabilities. pic.twitter.com/JOT7rRGH7L
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 13, 2026
Yes, neutralization, which I have predicted would happen to Iran for at least a dozen years, is the goal of the US and Israel.
That said, I believe that after its ‘neutralization’ Iran will remain a terrorist threat as well as the military ability to be supportive of the coming King of the South.
But Iran will not be the King of the South as PCG asserts.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
Iran in Prophecy Is Iran in Bible prophecy? If so, what does the Bible teach? What names, other than Persia, may be used to describe Iran? There are also two related videos: Iran In Prophecy and Iran and Israel Conflict.
Might German Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg become the King of the North? Is the former German Defense Minister (who is also the former German Minister for Economics and Technology) one to watch? What do Greco-Roman Catholic, Byzantine, and biblical prophecies suggest? A video of related interest would be: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Europe’s Future. A shorter one is also available: The Middle East, Prophecy, and Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg.
PCG: Teachings Unique to the Philadelphia Church of God Simply calling oneself ‘Philadelphia’ does not make one so (see Revelation 3:7-9), nor does Gerald Flurry calling himself “that prophet” make it so. This article provides many quotes from this group which tries to look faithful.