Tick toc, tick toc. That is the sound of Iran’s relentless march toward regional hegemony and nuclear capabilities. As Iran continues to succeed, so others in the vacinity continue to look to it for aid and support – most recently, two U.S. allies, Pakistan and India.
We cannot use the war on terror to get these countries to change course when their national interest is at stake. Diplomats will have to try to find something else to catch their attention. If two of the biggest countries, and staunchest allies of the United States in the war on terror, are looking to Iran for their energy crisis needs, it is only a matter of time until the smaller countries follow suit.
The time is now for a legitimate solution with Iran. As stated earlier, and as applied in the article, using terrorism as a proxy for not going through with the pipeline will not suffice. For India and Pakistan, terrorism and a national energy crisis are one and the same, with terrorists using a political crisis as fuel for their cause.
It will not help us right now to look for a way to stop the pipeline. What should be done is to generate a plan that will ensure the revenu made by Iran from this pipeline will not be used for attaining nuclear weaponry.
-Kent
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan, India, and Iran came one step closer this week to realizing a $7 billion natural-gas pipeline, a project that is likely to irk US policymakers trying to contain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Billed as a “peace pipeline” by the three countries, which are currently negotiating terms in Tehran, the project is designed to slake Pakistan’s and India’s soaring thirst for energy and strengthen regional cooperation. Pakistan, for one, says it can’t afford to let the project fail.
But Washington says it can’t afford to let the pipeline succeed, as the revenues would further Iran’s alleged nuclear- weapons program. Analysts say this stance could backfire if it undermines Pakistan’s key strategic function: fighting terrorism.
Key to that fight is sustained economic growth underpinned by ample supplies of natural gas, a resource that Iran has in abundance. “The only option we have is Iran,” says Mukthar Ahmed, an energy adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister. “We’re talking about a serious crisis” if the pipeline project falls through.
As of this month, the project seemed a step closer to reality: feasibility studies were completed in early May, and the three countries hope to sign a construction agreement by the end of June. Iran has the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia.
Washington has, accordingly, stepped up its diplomatic offensive in recent weeks, from private conversations with leaders in Pakistan and India to robust public statements.
In April, the US Embassy’s charge d’affaires in Pakistan, Peter Bodde, told reporters that “we will continue our opposition [to the pipeline]. At the same time, Pakistan should put more focus on finding means for alternate energy resources, such as from coal or wind or solar energy.”
Members of Congress have also bared their teeth. In March, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that foreign governments investing in Iran’s energy sector should be targeted with sanctions.
Few analysts say that the US would yank aid from Pakistan at a time when President Pervez Musharraf – seen by the Bush administration as a bulwark against extremism – is facing the worst crisis of his political tenure.
“It’s more likely that Washington would make a lot of noise about scrapping this aid but, if or when the pipeline project goes ahead, would really find some other way of retaliating, perhaps imposing new restrictions on the export of certain types of US technology or weaponry to Islamabad,” Roger Howard, author of ‘Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America’, writes in an e-mail.
Islamabad insists that it will go ahead. “Our public opinion, our governments, our people want us to pursue our national interests, and we will pursue that,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters when asked about US resistance. The pipeline means more to Islamabad than gas; it’s building relations with frosty neighbors.
“This is the one point at which things [between India and Pakistan] are being discussed in a businesslike manner, and that’s good,” says Najmuddin Shaikh, a former foreign secretary of Pakistan.
(Article by David Montero of the Christian Science Monitor)
