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Fw: Afghanistan: The New Great Game Is About Oil and Gas
From: Praxis1871@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 17:16:05 EST
Subject: Afghanistan: The New Great Game Is About Oil and Gas
To: niagara@tao.ca, ncawr@hotmail.com, ocsj@ocsj.ca
X-Mailer: AOL 7.0 for Windows CA sub 59
Subject: STRUGGLE FOR OIL PIPELINE ROUTES IN THE NEW AFGHANISTAN
New great game is about oil and gas
ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: The collapse of Afghanistan's
Taliban regime opens a new chapter in the "Great Game"
of Central Asia, with Pakistan, Russia and Iran
jockeying furiously for influence in their mutual
neighbour.
With the Taliban on the run, Tehran and Islamabad -
under watchful Russian and US eyes - are racing to
establish diplomatic beachheads in a country that has
been at the crossroads of regional politics for
centuries.
Ethnic and religious passions, fears of unstable
borders and a potential petro-dollar windfall are all
on the table in a regional update of the 19th century
Anglo-Russian rivalry that became known as the "Great
Game."
Iran, an ardent supporter of the victorious Northern
Alliance in Afghanistan, is rushing to be among the
first countries to open an embassy in Kabul, the
government newspaper in Tehran reported Saturday.
Sources said Iranian foreign ministry officials took
to the road from eastern Iran to prepare for the
reopening of their diplomatic missions in the capital
as well as the cities of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.
Moscow has dispatched a senior 12-member government
delegation to establish ties with the new Afghan
leadership. It too plans to reopen its Kabul embassy
as soon as possible and put a consulate in
Mazar-i-Sharif.
Russia signed up for the US-led coalition but has
become increasingly concerned that Western powers were
seeking to pacify Pakistan by pushing for a new Afghan
government that would include a large Taliban
contingent.
In contrast, Pakistan and the United States were
struggling in their dealings with the Northern
Alliance, which ignored their appeals to stay out of
Kabul until the question of a new government could be
settled.
The Northern Alliance has never had any love for
Pakistan, the last country to support the Taliban, and
has become increasingly critical of what it calls
Islamabad's efforts to put its stamp on a new Afghan
government.
The alliance also appears to have little time for the
United States, despite six weeks of US air strikes
that helped it sweep the Taliban from nearly all of
northern Afghanistan and Kabul.
Indeed, James Dobbins, the US envoy to the Northern
Alliance, has been in Pakistan since Wednesday but
still has no plans to travel to the Afghan capital,
according to officials in Washington.
On one level, Pakistan and Iran have similar interests
in Afghanistan. Both are concerned about a potential
outpouring of refugees; both fear continued chaos in
their neighbour could trigger unrest in their
countries. But if the 19th century matchup of
diplomatic wits, bribery and betrayal between Britain
and Russia was about trade routes and rail links, the
"New Great Game" is all about oil and gas.
The intrepid soldiers and spies of a bygone era have
given way to engineers and deal makers as the states
jockey for the lucrative business of building
pipelines to tap the vast reserves of the landlocked
region.
Islamabad has been hoping to run a gas pipeline from
Uzbekistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan, and
perhaps to India. Iran has its own pipeline dreams but
had run into strong US opposition.
"The Iranians are not interested in stabilizing
Afghanistan under any regime which would allow the
pipeline to go ahead," said M.A. Niazi, a prominent
political analyst.
"The only way of bringing Iran on board and to make
them active partner in stability, is to give them
their pipeline," he said. "But the Americans' interest
is to go through Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Russia and Iran have been conferring closely in recent
days, and their foreign ministers met in New York on
Friday to discuss Afghanistan's future, according to
Iranian radio.
Perhaps not coincidentally, two days earlier senior
Russian and Iranian negotiators urged accelerated
efforts, including a five-country presidential summit,
to a decade-old dispute over sharing Caspian Sea oil
wealth. But Iran and Pakistan have also maintained
contacts on the situation in Afghanistan. -AFP