Hamas Benefiting From Military Operation Against Libya

The fact that the operation against Libya is failing to dislodge Gaddafi, there are negatives that attach themselves to that failure.

Emanuele Ottolenghi writes that Iran is benefiting in a number of ways from the operation against Libya:

Say what you will about the wisdom of NATO’s Libya bombing campaign but nearly three months since it started, its unintended consequences have seriously damaged American-led efforts to stymie Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.


It has done so in three ways: the Libya operation has distracted Western diplomacy from the Iran file, despite the fact that Iran’s nuclear program continues to advance unimpeded by external pressure or internal threats to regime survival; it has driven up Iranian oil sales and revenues; and, crucially, it has driven down incentives for Iran to negotiate.

Read the whole thing.

Gaddafi's latest stunt to show he is unconcerned about the current attack: Gaddafi is playing chess with the visiting Russian head of the World Chess Federation.

But Iran is not the only one that is thanking NATO for their attack on Libya--Hamas has received a dividend from the operation against Libya as well

:The Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv said Israeli security officials had received information that fighting against Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya had weakened the leader's control and allowed the flow of weapons into the hands of arms dealers and "terror organizations."

Weapons were smuggled from Libya through Egypt and into Gaza via underground tunnels, the report said.

According to Maariv, Egyptian authorities were trying to intercept the weapons, but many convoys managed to reach Gaza.

Those weapons include hundreds of Grad rockets that come with a range of 60 to 70 kilometers--posing a serious threat to Israel. In addition, short-range rockets, rifles and ammunition had are also being smuggled in.

In addition, there is word that Russian-made anti-tank missiles which had been sold to Libya were currently in the hands of rebel forces in the south and could potentially be smuggled into Gaza.

Bottom line, between the benefits that both Iran and Hamas are getting from the NATO operation, it appears that even worse than its failure to push out Gaddafi--it is being successful in making the Middle East even more unstable.

Technorati Tag: Iran and Libya and Hamas.