December 13, 2010
The Wisdom Fund

Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India Agree to Support TAPI Pipeline

A boost for Israeli oil and natural gas ventures in Turkmenistan; expect long-term Western military presence in Afghanistan

by Enver Masud

The Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India (TAPI) pipeline project moved closer to implementation with the with the signing of an agreement on December 11.

The agreement was signed by the presidents of Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat. India was represented by Energy Minister Murli Deora.

The agreement commits the four nations to providing government support, including security for the pipeline.

The proposed 1,680 kilometer TAPI gas pipeline is favored by the U.S. over the Iran, Pakistan, India natural-gas pipeline -- the so-called "peace pipeline".

According to physicist James Gordon Prather -- who served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla (Dr. Prather helped deflect political pressures on me when I was directing the U.S. National Power Grid Study):

Back in 2005 Secretary of State Condi Rice had whizzed down to New Delhi to prevent India's finalizing technical and commercial contracts for a $4.5 billion Iran-Pakistan-India natural-gas pipeline that is to provide Iranian natural gas mostly to India.

In return for India canceling the "peace pipeline," Condi held out the possibility that we would (a) lift sanctions imposed by Congress on India (as a result of the nuclear weapons tests India conducted in 1998), (b) allow India to be supplied with NPT-proscribed nuclear materials and equipment -- to be subjected to special IAEA Safeguards -- we had previously blocked , and (c) get the Nuclear Suppliers Group to completely disregard guidelines on restrictions to be applied to NSG exports to India.

U.S. bases in Afghanistan are expected to play a role in securing the TAPI pipeline venture.

The publicly stated rationale for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq has long since been debunked.

The TAPI pipeline is a boost for Israeli oil and natural gas ventures in Turkmenistan, and U.S. wars have been a boost for Israel's "security".

Jewish writers have claimed that "powerful zionists drove USA into mid-east war for sake of Israel".

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[The war on Afghanistan was planned before September 11, 2001--Enver Masud, "What Really Happened on September 11 Remains a Mystery," The Wisdom Fund, April 27, 2002]

Syed Fazl-e-Haider, "India backs gas link across Afghanistan," atimes.com, December 14, 2010

[Kabul will expect the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide security cover, which, in turn, leads to the formalization of the long-term Western military presence in Afghanistan.--M K Bhadrakumar, "Pipeline project a new Silk Road," atimes.com, December 16, 2010]

[TAPI is the finished product of the US invasion of Afghanistan. It consolidates NATO's political and military presence in the strategic high plateau that overlooks Russia, Iran, India, Pakistan and China. TAPI provides a perfect setting for the alliance's future projection of military power for "crisis management" in Central Asia.--M K Bhadrakumar, "NATO weaves South Asian web," atimes.com, December 23, 2010]

[More than 740 million cubic feet of gas per year will start flowing to Pakistan from Iran's giant South Pars field in the Persian Gulf by 2014. . . .

What IP will do is to embolden Islamabad even more - with Pakistan finally becoming a key transit corridor for Iranian gas, apart from using gas for its own needs. If India finally decides against IPI, China is ready to step on board - and build an extension from IP, parallel to the Karakoram highway, towards Xinjiang.--Pepe Escobar, "Pakistan 'punished' in Pipelineistan," atimes.com, July 13, 2011]

[Having developed strong interests on the two sides of the Persian Gulf divide - Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and Iran - China is taking an awesome leap as a big-time player in the geopolitics of the Middle East by elevating its ties with Israel to a strategic partnership.--M K Bhadrakumar, "A dragon dance in the Negev," atimes.com, July 13, 2011]

[Last week, the union cabinet affirmed India's participation in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) 1,700-kilometer pipeline, which envisages a flow of gas from Central Asia into the Indian heartland.--Zorawar Daulet Singh, "India struggles with pipeline geopolitics," atimes.com, June 1, 2012]