With Iran's successful history in diplomatic subterfuge, it should come as no surprise that the U.S. has inadvertently done Iran's bidding in Libya. By aiding Libyan rebels — like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (which tried unsuccessfully to kill Moammar Gadhafi in 1996) and others with deep ties to both Iranian and al-Qaida-supported terror efforts — the U.S. is advancing Iranian goals.
A validation of this unfortunate alignment of U.S. military power with Iranian strategic objectives can be found in Qatar's becoming the first Arab nation to fly combat missions over Libya. Qatar, like Oman, Syria and Lebanon, is aligned with Iran. That Mirage 2000 jet fighters from Qatar's tiny air force are flying combat missions says much about Iranian approval of the ill-defined NATO mission in Libya.
Of further interest is: What base are Qatar's jets using? NATO's aircraft are flying off of U.S. aircraft carriers or from bases in southern Europe. Qatar's land-based aircraft have no choice but to use airfields in Tunisia or, more probably, Egypt — opening up the even more troubling prospect of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-penetrated transitional military regime allowing its bases and airspace to be used by Qatar in the Iranian-backed mission.
Libya, at least the eastern portion of that nation, may join other Iranian outposts in Africa. Iran has assembled a strong network of terror training posts in Sudan. In Eritrea, sitting adjacent to the strategic Horn of Africa shipping choke point, Iran enjoys extraterritorial rights — amounting to de facto Iranian soil adjacent to one of the world's top 10 shipping lanes.
Iranian subversion efforts are increasing in western Africa, with Senegal, Gambia and Nigeria attracting Iranian attention. In late 2010, Nigeria arrested two Iranian al-Quds (Jerusalem) Force officers who were accompanying a large arms shipment intended for rebels in Gambia. The al-Quds Force is the covert arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Iran views western Africa as key. The region hosts a large population of Lebanese Shiites whose control of the diamond trade helps finance Iran's Hezbollah terror proxies in Lebanon, as well as providing conduits for supporting Iran's regional subversion and terror efforts.
But, more importantly, western Africa is home to many U.N. votes, and it is in the U.N. that Iran hopes to hold off further sanctions against its prized nuclear weapons effort.
Iran's nuclear program, temporarily stalled by the Stuxnet computer virus, will change everything. At best, it will set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, with first Turkey, then Saudi Arabia and Egypt seeking to develop nuclear weapons in response.
