The current White House drive for intervention against Iran may actually have more to do with strategic control of oil and gas resources than Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Pakistan’s Daily Times reports Feb. 11 that at the Third Asia Gas Buyers’ Summit about to commence in New Delhi, India hopes conclude a deal with Iran to build a new pipeline to import natural gas. Tehran and Delhi are said to be waiting for approval from Islamabad for the pipeline to cross Pakistan’s territory. Significantly, the article also said that India’s Petroleum Ministry is "looking at the feasibility of bringing a pipeline from Turkmenistan to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan."
This is all part of the new Great Game for control of the still largely un-tapped oil and gas resources of Central Asia. A race is now underway to determine whether these resources will be pumped out to global markets via the trans-Caucasus route to Turkey favored by the US (the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, already under construction), or a new route under control of Russia and its regional partners India and Iran. Destabilizing Iran could be critical to the outcome of this struggle.
