With extra economic sanctions imposed against Iran, and a rise in diplomatically expressed disapproval, recent political engagement from the international community is beginning to take on a decidedly sabre-rattling flavour.
The United States of America, and its allies and press-ganged collaborators, may not wage an actual military assault on Iran, but they may be staging another kind of rout – with the aim of securing Fossil Fuel energy supplies for the industrialised West.
Iran’s “public face” people have still not learned that the Western media are prone to pursuing irritating, provocative lines of enquiry, in order to elicit a scandalous response, in order to back up the “axis of evil” view of the world.
The responses given in the interview at the top of this post show how Iran walks into the trap so easily. Iran cannot correct world opinion, regardless of the logic they use, when world opinion on Iran is so blatantly manipulated by those who manage the Western media.
But there’s more going on here than just media corruption and the demonisation of Iran.
Four recent announcements are significant in determining whether the “nuclear complaints” against Iran are the real underlying reason for opposing Iranian governance through sanctions. And they all centre around energy.
1. Iran Announces Nuclear Fusion Research
https://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=223584
There would be several reasons for Iran making this announcement. They want to assure the world that they are serious about their civilian nuclear ambition. The world and its media continue to accuse Iran of seeking to create nuclear weapons, despite the evidence. Nuclear Fusion does not produce fissile by-products so it cannot be used to create bomb material. Iran also wants to continue with the game of lighthearted brinkmanship – by announcing Nuclear Fusion research they are effectively brushing off the damaging effects of the economic sanctions and saying they can still function scientifically, economically on research and engineering.
2. Iran Announces Major Natural Offshore Gas Discovery
https://gulfnews.com/business/oil-gas/iran-makes-gulf-gas-discovery-1.650612
“Iran makes Gulf gas discovery : Tehran says it needs $25b a year in oil industry investment and sanctions are no problem : Reuters : Published: 00:00 July 6, 2010…Tehran: Iran has discovered a natural gas field in the Gulf with reserves of more than 700 billion cubic metres, Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi said yesterday. The Forouz field was discovered about 30km southeast of the island of Kish…”
This announcement has been a long time in coming :-
https://www.energy-pedia.com/article.aspx?articleid=110234
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_Gas_Field
The source of Natural Gas is close to a possible place to store large quantities of Natural Gas, importantly :-
https://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=90811
There are troubles to be overcome, such as the earthquake potential for damage :-
https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gV7x39RlvHix7Q2IwElcwfeqtPcw
3. BP Announces Deepwater Subsea Natural Gas Contract With Egypt
https://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/2010719164848174444.html
“UPDATED ON: TUESDAY, JULY 20, 2010 : BP signs major gas deal with Egypt : BP has signed an agreement with Egypt to develop two offshore gas fields in the largest deal for the beleaguered energy giant since its drilling rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Egypt’s petroleum ministry said in a statement on Monday, the deal with Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation would develop reserves of around five trillion cubic metres of gas from the North Alexandria Deepwater block and the Western Mediterranean block…”
Was this announcement postponed until the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was capped ? Or was the capping of the Deepwater Horizon well accelerated to accommodate this Egypt announcement ? We might never know, but they are very close in time to each other.
The BP deal on subsea Natural Gas with Egypt is effectively BP announcing it is “open for offshore business”. And open for business in the Middle East.
Why is this relevant ?
4. Iranian Infrastructure Companies Have Political Problems
https://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=93714
“Iran Guards Poised to Win $10B Energy Contracts – Reports Dow Jones Newswires : TEHRAN (AFP), May 25, 2010 : Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are negotiating with the country’s oil ministry to finalize oil and gas development contracts worth $10 billion, several Tehran newspapers reported Tuesday…”
https://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews.aspx?xmlpath=RSSFeed/HeadlineNews/Oil/8917868.xml
“Iran Revolutionary Guards pull out of gas deal over sanctions : Tehran (Platts) : 19Jul2010 : Khatam al-Anbiya, the construction arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps., or IRGC, said Saturday that it had pulled out of a $2 billion gas project so as not to endanger the country’s national interests after the UN, the US and the EU banned any dealings with the IRGC and its affiliates…”
Arguably, the true justification for the military assault on Iraq in 2003 was partly based on the views of those who wished to assert Western control of energy resources in the region. (It certainly wasn’t based on accurate intelligence about what turned out to be phantom Weapons of Mass Destruction.) Saddam Hussein couldn’t be trusted to deal “diplomatically” with the rest of the world, which put access to many Iraqi Fossil Fuel assets at risk. Why do you think the “rebels” burned the oil fields ?
https://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2581.shtml
If that is the thinking once again, that access to Iranian energy needs to be guaranteed for foreign markets and foreign company profits, and that this necessitates interference in the country, then that possibly explains why Iran keeps up the public defence of their rights to have Fission Nuclear Power – they are making a pointed point about energy.
It looks as if it may not be expedient to actually “bomb Iran back to the Stone Age” in order to achieve this supposed goal. Iran is currently the second OPEC supplier of Petroleum, so installations there should be protected from attack.
It looks as if, despite the boasts, Iran’s future nationalised energy production is already being affected by sanctions. If Iranian Fossil Fuels are to be exploited, foreign Oil and Gas companies will need to be brought in.
Maybe America and her “stooges” and “poodles” needn’t man the mobile weaponry in order to secure energy supplies from Persia. What they will need, however, is Oil and Gas companies to complete a virtual invasion.
And that’s where BP comes in. They were evicted from Iran at the time of the 1979 Revolution. Just as they were desperate to get part of the action on reclaiming Iraq’s oil fields, they’re probably itching to get invited to go back into Iran.