Central Asia Pipeline Deal Serves U.S. Agenda
"Before the September 11 attacks, there was nothing wrong with this
alternative expect the Taliban regime which was opposed by the United States.
Now this obstacle has been eliminated as part of the so-called war on terror,"
Mo'tamid underlined.The Afghanistan option helps the United States and western
countries achieve several goals including preventing Russia from restoring its
power in the region, preventing Iran from more wealth and diversifying pipeline routes,
he remarked. "
islam-online.net
ASHKHABAD, December 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The agreement
signed Friday, December27 , by Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan to carry
Turkmenistan's natural gas to the Indian Ocean via Afghanistan and Pakistan is
closely linked to the American desire to control oil-reach areas across the globe,
said an expert in Russian affairs.
After the United States was able to plant its military bases in the Arab Gulf,
from where the bulk of world oil production comes, Washington,
fearing that at one point Arab countries might use oil as a pressure tool,
began eyeing control of the Caucasian Sea oil as a possible alternative
to Mideast oil, Dr. Attef Mo'tamid said.
"Washington had several operations to carry the Caucasian Sea
oil either across Georgia or Iran or Afghanistan", he recalled.
"The United States and western countries balked at the Georgian option
because of the domestic problems and disputes in Abkhazia which
could pose a threat to the envisaged pipeline," asserted the expert.
"The Iranian option meant concentrating oil in the Arab Gulf area
while Washington was seeking to diversify its oil resources and routes.
This is in addition to the U.S.-clamped economic embargo on Iran
which bans American investment firms from operating in Iran," he further said.
According to the expert, "Washington was only left with the Afghanistan.
"Before the September 11 attacks, there was nothing wrong
with this alternative expect the Taliban regime which was opposed
by the United States. Now this obstacle has been eliminated as part
of the so-called war on terror," Mo'tamid underlined.
The Afghanistan option helps the United States and
western countries achieve several goals including preventing Russia
from restoring its power in the region, preventing Iran from more wealth
and diversifying pipeline routes, he remarked.
Analysts have said the pipeline will open up Turkmenistan's vast
natural gas reserves to the wider world for the first time and attract
millions of dollars of transit tariffs to Afghanistan's ruined economy.
Turkmenistan has some of the world's greatest reserves of natural gas,
but still relies on tightly controlled Russian pipelines to export it.
On January5 , the French Liberation newspaper reported that the
American war on Afghanistan was planned years ago and that the
September 11 attacks were only the golden chance Washington
was awaiting to penetrate central Asia to exploit the Caucasian Sea oil wealth.
The United States had been dreaming, for years, of controlling the
Caucasian Sea oil and gas pipeline routes which would spare it complete
dependence on OPEC oil, the French paper said.
Although Afghanistan does not have several energy resources,
Washington viewed it as a tool to carry Turkmenistan's energy
resources via the Arab Gulf or India, where the U.S. has
overwhelming influence, in order to end Russian control over Caucasian Sea
energy resources, Liberation said.
The paper quoted, in this respect, Vice President Dick Cheney
as saying in 1998 , before he assumed office, that the emergence
of the Caucasian Sea as an energy-rich area is an unprecedented strategic factor.
In a report he supervised in 2001 on American energy policy, Cheney
stressed the United States must find routes in central Asia to import
and export energy in the Caucasian Sea region.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan's Prime Minister
Zafarullah Jamali and Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov
inked Friday an ambitious and long-awaited accord to build a
1 ,500-kilometer two-billion-dollar trans-Afghan gas pipeline.
"We are glad that this important agreement has been signed,
as this is a significant step towards the realization of the project," Niyazov said.
The feasibility study for the link, carried out by the Asian Development Bank
(ADB), will be completed by July2003 , after which international companies
will have the chance to form a consortium to develop the project, he noted.
A Turkish company, Chalyk Holding, has said it is ready to participate in the
construction of the pipeline, he said.
Niyazov said the three leaders hoped the Indian leadership will join in the project.
"We will be working on this and making every effort," he said.
The pipeline deal to connect Turkmenistan Dauletabad fields to
seaports in Pakistan across the mountains of Afghanistan brought
to an end 20 years of laborious negotiations mired in regional conflict.
The projected pipeline capacity is for 30 billion cubic meters
of gas per year, to be transited via Kandahar in Afghanistan to the Pakistani city of Multan.
The three countries are still in talks with the ADB and other multinational
lending agencies on whether the pipeline can be extended to India,
according to an official in Islamabad quoted Thursday, December26 ,
by the specialist International Oil Daily.
The ADB has agreed to allocate a one million dollar loan
for a feasibility study expected to be completed by next August, the daily said.
Jamali said the signing of the accord would "draw foreign investors to the project."
Kazai, for his part, said the pipeline project would serve the energy needs
of all three countries and "help improve the situation in the region and bring
economic growth to our states."
An earlier attempt to build the trans-Afghan gas pipeline was contracted by
U.S. energy company Unocal, but its plans were scrapped in 1998 when
U.S. cruise missiles struck alleged Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan
in response to terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
However, since the fall of Taliban regime last year, the pipeline project
has been catapulted back onto the agenda by regional leaders
hoping it will bring enormous wealth to their impoverished central Asian region.
The project is expected to be completed in four years, although many
observers are skeptical about its prospects given the political instability in the region.
The ADB is acting as strategic partner for the pipeline's construction
and will conduct market research for the sale of Turkmen gas abroad. |
