Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-67.42.77.181-20150215034524/@comment-121511-20150304021653

It seemed more like he was trying to access its power than destroy it: he believes that wielding it may grant him the ability to unmake the world without the need for destroying the Towers. Whether he was right or wrong is unknown, but irrelevant since he's killed, and the Eye taken by the Psijics.

At any rate, the Prophecy of the Last Dragonborn seems to imply that Snow Throat is deactivated by the Civil War in Skyrim, considering it describes the Snow Tower as "sundered, kingless, bleeding". This of course could be temporary or it could not have deactivated Snow Throat at all, but the Thalmor would have orchestrated the Civil War either way to explore that possibility and weaken the Empire.