[WCUSP] [pdx] Iraq oil to Israel?

[yvonne simmons]

> Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
> The Guardian (UK)
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,940250,00.html
> 
> US discusses plan to pump fuel to its regional ally
> and solve energy headache at a stroke 
> 
> Ed Vuillamy in Washington
> Sunday April 20, 2003
> The Observer 
> 
> 
> Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly
> conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between
> Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government
> figures in Baghdad. 
> The plan envisages the reconstruction of an old
> pipeline, inactive since the end of the British
> mandate in Palestine in 1948, when the flow from
> Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was
> re-directed to Syria. 
> 
> Now, its resurrection would transform economic power
> in the region, bringing revenue to the new
> US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria and solving
> Israel's energy crisis at a stroke. 
> 
> It would also create an end less and easily
> accessible source of cheap Iraqi oil for the US
> guaranteed by reliable allies other than Saudi
> Arabia - a keystone of US foreign policy for decades
> and especially since 11 September 2001. 
> 
> Until 1948, the pipeline ran from the
> Kurdish-controlled city of Mosul to the Israeli port
> of Haifa, on its northern Mediterranean coast. 
> 
> The revival of the pipeline was first discussed
> openly by the Israeli Minister for National
> Infrastructures, Joseph Paritzky, according to the
> Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz . 
> 
> The paper quotes Paritzky as saying that the
> pipeline would cut Israel's energy bill drastically
> - probably by more than 25 per cent - since the
> country is currently largely dependent on expensive
> imports from Russia. 
> 
> US intelligence sources confirmed to The Observer
> that the project has been discussed. One former
> senior CIA official said: 'It has long been a dream
> of a powerful section of the people now driving this
> administration [of President George W. Bush] and the
> war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's energy supply as
> well as that of the United States. 
> 
> 'The Haifa pipeline was something that existed, was
> resurrected as a dream and is now a viable project -
> albeit with a lot of building to do.' 
> 
> The editor-in-chief of the Middle East Economic
> Review , Walid Khadduri, says in the current issue
> of Jane's Foreign Report that 'there's not a metre
> of it left, at least in Arab territory'. 
> 
> To resurrect the pipeline would need the backing of
> whatever government the US is to put in place in
> Iraq, and has been discussed - according to Western
> diplomatic sources - with the US-sponsored Iraqi
> National Congress and its leader Ahmed Chalabi, the
> former banker favoured by the Pentagon for a
> powerful role in the war's aftermath. 
> 
> Sources at the State Department said that concluding
> a peace treaty with Israel is to be 'top of the
> agenda' for a new Iraqi government, and Chalabi is
> known to have discussed Iraq's recognition of the
> state of Israel. 
> 
> The pipeline would also require permission from
> Jordan. Paritzky's Ministry is believed to have
> approached officials in Amman on 9 April this year.
> Sources told Ha'aretz that the talks left Israel
> 'optimistic'. 
> 
> James Akins, a former US ambassador to the region
> and one of America's leading Arabists, said: 'There
> would be a fee for transit rights through Jordan,
> just as there would be fees for Israel from those
> using what would be the Haifa terminal. 
> 
> 'After all, this is a new world order now. This is
> what things look like particularly if we wipe out
> Syria. It just goes to show that it is all about
> oil, for the United States and its ally.' 
> 
> Akins was ambassador to Saudi Arabia before he was
> fired after a series of conflicts with then
> Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, father of the
> vision to pipe oil west from Iraq. In 1975,
> Kissinger signed what forms the basis for the Haifa
> project: a Memorandum of Understanding whereby the
> US would guarantee Israel's oil reserves and energy
> supply in times of crisis. 
> 
> Kissinger was also master of the American plan in
> the mid-Eighties - when Saddam Hussein was a key US
> ally - to run an oil pipeline from Iraq to Aqaba in
> Jordan, opposite the Israeli port of Eilat. 
> 
> The plan was promoted by the now Defence Secretary
> Donald Rumsfeld, and the pipeline was to be built by
> the Bechtel company, which the Bush administration
> last week awarded a multi-billion dollar contract
> for the reconstruction of Iraq. 
> 
> The memorandum has been quietly renewed every five
> years, with special legislation attached whereby the
> US stocks a strategic oil reserve for Israel even if
> it entailed domestic shortages - at a cost of $3
> billion (£1.9bn) in 2002 to US taxpayers. 
> 
> This bill would be slashed by a new pipeline, which
> would have the added advantage of giving the US
> reliable access to Gulf oil other than from Saudi
> Arabia. 
> 
> 
> 


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