The conflict in Syria can be traced back to the fact that two competing gas pipelines vied for Syrian approval. The Russian Turkstream and the US, Saudi, Israel, Greek and Quatari pipeline.
“In summer 2017 there was a dramatic split among Gulf Arab countries with Saudi Arabia declaring an embargo against Qatar for its “support of terrorism.” In reality, the move was aimed at cutting growing back-channel talks between Qatar and Iran, both of whom share the world’s largest natural gas field in the Persian Gulf. The Qatari section is called North Field and its LNG is said to be the world’s cheapest to extract, making Qatar in recent years the largest LNG exporter. The adjoining Iran section is called South Pars.
After spending a reported $3 billion financing anti-Assad and anti-Iran terrorist groups in Syria, in a futile try to get a pipeline through Syria to Turkey and on to the huge EU gas market, it seems that the shifty Qataris at some point, after Russia’s decisive entry into the Syria war in late 2015, realized it might gain more by shifting sides and covertly working with Iran and Assad and Erdogan to bring both Qatari and Iran gas to market. That was the real reason for the sharp break between Qatar and the Saudis. Notable is the fact that both Iran and Turkey came to the aid of Qatar when the Saudis tried to embargo them into submission.
Russia’s Turk Stream
Adding to the geopolitical cocktail of competing interests, the Black Sea sections of the Russia-Turkey gas pipeline were completed at the end of 2018 with full operation to begin later in 2019, offering 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually, half, some 16 bcm, available for the EU markets. Turk Stream, as does North Stream, both allow Russian gas to the EU independent of politically hostile Ukraine pipeline routes. From the Kiyikoy terminal in Turkey, the Russian gas can go either to EU member Bulgaria or Greece or both.
Non-EU member Serbia has just begun construction of its section of the TurkStream pipeline to carry Russian natural gas to Europe. Serb Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic recently in Moscow said Serbia’s plans for the construction of the gas conduit did not hinge on Bulgaria’s own work. TurkStream will carry Russian gas through Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. Brussels is not overjoyed.
Now comes Israel into play, in a closer friendship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, backed by Washington, with financing also from a French company, IGI Poseidon, a subsidiary of Edison, offering another rival option to Qatar and Iran and Turkey as well as to Russia. Turkey is threatening to drill for oil and gas in the Turkish part of Cyprus while Lebanon disputes the offshore claims of Israel’s pipeline to Cyprus. And ExxonMobil just announced a major gas discovery in the offshore Cyprus waters disputed between Turkey and Greek or EU Cyprus.
Despite whatever propaganda you may have read about why the US has problems with Syria and Iran, it boils down to these pipelines. The US is fighting a life and death battle against Russian and Chinese hegemony in energy and control over the Middle East. That is what 911 was all about, providing a pretext for the US to invade Mid East countries. Going as far back as Lyndon Johnson’s failed attempt to invade the Middle East by sinking the USS Liberty, the US has wanted to control the Middle East and it’s Oil and gas.
www.blacklistednews.com/article/…eline.html
It’s truly a shame and an outrage that so many innocents in the Middle East died and WILL die because of US sponsored war and terrorism. The US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have funded and trained ISIS, Al Queda and a long list of other terrorist organizations that have tortured and killed millions of innocent civilians. And EVERY administration has done exactly the same thing, especially Bush, Obama, and Trump.
h/t Natura Naturans