Secretary of State Condi Rice doesn't think the United States and European Union should continue talking to Iran about their potential nuke development. Diplomacy should end and the UN Security Council must now take action, she says. Rice admitted to reporters on January 23, that dialogue between Iran and the international community had come to a "dead end".
"I don't see much room for further discussion in any format," Rice huffed.
Of course, the US's true intentions for going after Tehran may have more to do with what’s hidden beneath Iran's arid soil than their nuclear ambitions.
Currently the second largest untapped oil reserve in the world is in Iran. Iran has five times more oil than the US. The industry’s reputable Oil and Gas Journal in 2005 estimated 125.8 billion barrels were in the country just waiting to be pumped. Iran is also the number 2 producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The majority of Iran's crude oil is located in Khuzestan, which borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf which is the home to two of Iran’s largest untapped oil fields -- Yadavaran and Azadegan. So it really shouldn’t be a surprise that the oil boys in Washington want dibs on Iran’s oil-rich land.
But there’s a problem, and it could be a substantial glitch in the neo-con’s agenda if Iran’s nuclear dabbling is taken before the Security Council where it may well be vetoed by China and Russia. The only other alternative if the Council were to veto Iran sanctions would be to invade.
The Chinese government already has its eye on Yadavaran. The Chinese state oil company China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation has a 50 percent stake in the vast Yadavaran oil field.
Russia too has a stake in Iran’s oil-rich economy. In 2003 Russia sought to diversify its oil procurement and distribution methods by shipping Russian crude to Iran, where it is was refined for domestic consumption. In return, Iran now delivers an equivalent amount of oil to Russia. As the Asia Times explained in February 2003, “This arrangement will make Russian oil available to non-European buyers at a competitive price by sharply decreasing the cost of exports currently done by oil tankers loaded at Russia's Black Sea ports...”
The threat of UN sanctions has the oil speculators and markets worried sick. Prices have been in flux over the past few weeks as Iran has threatened to pull its huge foreign exchange reserves from European banks. If Tehran is anything, they certainly aren’t stupid. They know the threat of yanking their cash from Western banks will upset the US stock exchange, which in turn will damage the Bush administration. Iran is flexing what little muscle they have left in hopes that their nuclear agenda doesn’t go before the Security Council. Tehran is just playing politics. But what’s worrying Washington more than Iranian nukes may be a much different WMD.
In March 2006, Iran is slated to open the long awaited Iranian Oil Bourse (oil exchange program). Currently the petrodollar is dominated by US currency, but Iran and other OPEC countries want that to end. When the bourse opens, Iran will be trading on a euro-oil-trading system, the first step toward an alternative petrodollar. That could be bad news for the US.
“In economic terms, this represents [a great threat] because it will allow anyone willing either to buy or to sell oil for Euro to transact on the exchange, thus circumventing the U.S. dollar altogether,” writes Krassimir Petrov, an economics professor at the American University in Bulgaria in a January edition of the Energy Bulletin.
“Europeans will not have to buy and hold dollars in order to secure their payment for oil, but would instead pay with their own currencies. The adoption of the euro for oil transactions will provide the European currency with a reserve status that will benefit the European at the expense of the Americans ... The Chinese and the Japanese will be especially eager to adopt the new exchange, because it will allow them to drastically lower their enormous dollar reserves and diversify with Euros, thus protecting themselves against the depreciation of the dollar.”
The Bush boys don’t want that to happen. Oil is likely not the only reasons why the US wants to destroy Tehran’s military capabilities, but it does look like one of the big motivations. The United States wants the global oil trade, and in particular OPEC, to primarily benefit America as it has been.
What we are seeing may be a new form of economic globalization in the making -- one that involves the forced eradication and trading of natural resources.
You may want to think about that next time you start your engines.
Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, just published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted through Josh's blog at http://www.brickburner.org. Josh can be reached at BrickBurner@gmail.com.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership
"The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
"Iran,filled with mistrust, hate and hateful paranoia towards Israel and the West , seems to have as much practical reasons for acquiring a nuclear reactor under the guise of "energy" as Israel did. Given its turbulent history, and the fact that two of its closest neighbors are now occupied by the West, it seems quite reasonable for Iran to desire the same protection as Israel "secretly" has…. Present foreign policy facades about arms control and non proliferation will simply NOT work. The diplomatic situation grows worse. Neither bluffing nor bragging will convince Iran to reconcile with all its neighbors and the West in general. … For more than fifty years Israel has been directly and illegitimately funded and aided in its nuclear weapons production by France, the United States, Britain, Germany and Norway yet maintaining "ambiguity"…During that time, Israel has also refused to sign or negotiate any commitment against the use of biological weapons, such as the 1972 Biological Weapons Conventions. Thus another ambiguous stance when peace requires making more clear the moral conscience and commitment towards peace and non violence..Over the last 50 years, Israel has been directly and indirectly aided and funded in its development of weapons of mass destruction by the United States, France, Norway, Britain and Germany. These powerful nations have neither been forthright nor accountable in their roles in giving one small country in the Middle East enough clout to wipe out most of their neighbors via nuclear holocaust. Such a stance is not only controversial and hypocritical to non-proliferation; it is intrinsically detrimental to all other diplomacy and hopes concerning peace in the future of the Middle East.”- Mary La Rosa/ PalestineChronicle.com
much more on the WAWA BLOG:
http://www.wearewideawake.org
by
Eileen Fleming (172 articles, 101 quicklinks, 274 diaries, 650 comments [16 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Jan 25, 2006 at 9:03:20 AM
Iran will go forward with its plans, and an invasion of Iran will not take place. Iran will drag this out until near the end of Bush's term, and then announce its nuclear capability.
If Pakistan can have nuclear power, certainly Iran an older and more conservative country should be able to have this.
Until the US and the world body works together jointly in eliminating nuclear technology, we will always have this problem.
Iran should realize the danger they place their own people with nuclear waste, and its radiactive destructiveness.
If Iran was smart they would be starting their own Space Program toward searching for reliable forms of energy. Such energy exists on the moon called Helium-3. A cargo load in the space shuttle is said to supply enough energy for the United States for 1 entire year. The good news is that this stuff is radioactive free. It operates under fusion methods, without the waste of radiactivity and the dangers involved with it.
The leading countries in the world should be using the space program as a means to get other countries to abanodon their ideas in having conventional radioactive nuclear arms.
This will bring progress to these countries, and also bring them clean energy alternatives to sustain themselves and their cultures forever.
Just think...if the moon has Helium-3 think of the abundance of the stuff on Mercury and Vesus, two plants that are closest to the Sun.
by
Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 930 comments) on Wednesday, Jan 25, 2006 at 8:07:31 PM
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