Oil out of Iran and the shameful but real thrust for it

A raft of news stories today suggest that the Iran-Pakistan Pipeline will be completed by December, 2014, despite strenuous objections from the United States.  See e.g., The Pakistan Daily Times,  The News International, boh of which also suggested that the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline may be in rouble along the Khyber Pass because of the War on Terror, The Express Tribune, The Business Recorder, and The International News Network Online which also noted that a Pakistan Senate committee recommended "to start construction of power generation units at Gwadar and other areas to produce electricity through the gas imported from Iran, state-run radio"  reported.

Photo International News Network

The Express Tribune also reported that Pakistan's "[n]ewly-elected Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, in his maiden speech, revealed that Islamabad and Beijing have expressed a keen desire to implement the Gwadar-Khunjerab-Kashgar rail network." 

Gwadar is a deep-water port in in Balochistan Province in Pakistan, near the Iranian border and the strategically-significant Strait of Hormuz.

Dispatch News Desk

The New York Times Smugglers plying their trade in

 the Strait of Hormuz between Irran and Oman.

In May of this year, China took over operational control of Gwadar port, to the dismay of many Balochi.

For more on China and the Gwadar port, see the International Policy Digest, "The Preeminence of Pakistan’s Gwadar Port."

The United States has, for decades, exerted pressure in many places to keep Iran from exporting oil.  Those efforts have been dramatically increased since Iran has obtained some possibility of building The BBomb.  The United States has threaten to cut of aid to Pakistan if it goes forward with the IP Pipeline.

It looks as if shipping a lot of oil and natural gas will finally be allowed out of Iran.

If everyone may export and import oil Iran should not be stigmatized.  It may wan The Bomb, though there is no proof of it; Israel is reported to have 250 Bombs.  Start there I say.

It is a pity that any country thirsts for oil, given the climate disaster than awaits us and our descendants, and the United States and many other countries continue to hurst after it.

 It would make little difference to the World if the US were to completely eliminate fossil fuels, because he World will use every last drop in the Earth.

Some will benefit from climate change; many will die of too much water or too little; too much cold or too little.

 

If I had billions it wouldn’t make much difference to my ease who lives and dies since I can live anywhere I chose to live.  

Not many have that choice.  I assume that it is the lack of real threat to those with much money that explains our World's continued drive to use every last drop of oil.

Democratic Underground.com

 Prove me wrong, you who disagree.

The Nation of Baluchistan blooms on the dessert air, perhaps

Some 1,500,000 Balochi live in Iran, as a result of an agreement between Britain and Iran in the mid-19th Century.  They live mostly in the Sistan and Baluchistan Province in Southern Iran, Iran's poorest and most neglected province. They are mostly Sunni in Shia Iran and are mistreated by Iranians.

Around 400,000 Balochi live in Afghanistan, a consequence of the insensitive Durand Line dividing he Pashtun people in 1893.  The Baloch people hav customs compatible with the Pashtun the live at peace with them.  The Afghan Baloch are are now at war with the United States.  The live mainly in the Afghanistan provinces of Nimroz, Helmand, Kandahar, and Farah, where the United States' "surge" took place and from whence the United States drones Balochi living in North Balochistan, who, in turn, are said to plot against the United States.

At least 13,000,000 Balochi live in the Baluchistan Province of Pakistan  They make up about 5 % of Pakistan's population.  They are mistreated by the Oxford-educated, English-speaking Rulers of Pakistan  who are predominately Punjabi.

The Pashtun and the Balochi have similar cultural traditions and

 live at peace with one another.

Many Balochi, but perhaps not a majority of them, agitate for the Nation of Baluchistan which would be made of Balochi living in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. . .

. . . and being poor have had little leverage to secure either a Nation or a better life for themselves.

The Baloch now have some leverage.

Pakistan needs natural gas and needs it badly.

Iran, its neighbor to the East, has the World's largest natural gas field, , badly needs to export it, and Pakistan has signed agreements for the Iran-Pakistan Pipeline.  The IP Pipeline, if completed, would satisfy Pakistan's energy needs, and perhaps India's and China's.  It would run through Balochi territory.

To the North, above Afghanistan, Turkmenistan has the World's' second largest natural gas fields (third, if Russia's is counted). The Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline, TAP or TAPI, if completed, would supply all of Pakistan's energy needs, and also reach India and China. It would run through Baluchi territory.

The IP Pipeline is supported by Iran and the previous Pakistan administration.  It is opposed by the United Staates with all the instruments of power at its disposal, save War; and by the Horrible Saudi.  The newly-elected president of Pakistan is close to the Saudi, and seems intent on renegotiating the US incursions on Pakistan territory.  The fate of the IP Pipeline is unknown yet.

The TAPI pipeline is supported by Pakistan, and the United States supports it as an alternative to the IP Pipeline, even though Turkmenistan is ruled by Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov, President for Life, a holdover from the Soviet rea with a wretched human rights record..  The TAPI Pipeline must cross Persian-specking Tajiks in Hera;, Afghan  Pashtun and Balochi in Kandahar; and the Baluchi in Pakistan. It must cross the especially  active region of  Quetta. That presents negotiating challenges, milady stated.


An organized Balochi could block either pipeline, or at l sabotage either.  It is uncertain whether there is a group in Baluchistan sufficiently organized to force concessions from either Iran or Pakistan.

The prospect of organized opposition to Iranian or Pakistani despotism is slim, given Islamabad's and Tehran's inhumane repression (see The Baloch people have a right to self-determination), and there is some reason for optimism despite persecution.

For a thoughtful look at Baloch prospects, see Baloch Nationalism and the Geopolitics of Energy Resources: The Changing Context of Separatism in Pakistan,Strategic Studies Institutie, United States Army Waar College.


IMAGES OF BALOCHISTAN

Tourists don't go to Balochistan areas often, so most of the images posted on line are of violence, and that is not typical of the area.  The Baloch are a tribal people and I do not possess any characteristic that would fit tribal mores.  Within the communities of the Baloch, there is much to admire, including the ability to survive in a harsh land.  See, e.g., here.

Baloch in Pakistan:

Quetta in the North, the capital of the Pakistan provine of Balochistan:

Below, images of Asura, 2012,in Quitta, an annual religious rite
 of the large Shiite population of Quetta,
not bombed by Sunni in 2012,
mourning the masterdom of Hussein
on the plains of Karbala in what is now Iraq.  
Hussein was the grandson of  the Holy Prophet.

Gwadar, a port city on the Arabian Sea being developed by China, which will province China a trace route throughout central Asia.  Baloch nationalists see an effort to drown out their calls for independence.

Kauzdar, in the center, the capital of the Kauzdar District.  The district has a population of about 500,000 Balochi:

Balochi satire.  Pakistani saluting  the Pakistan flag.

The Baloch Dessert, which occupies most of Pakistan

My satire:

Texas, Our Texas! all hail the mighty State!
Texas, Our Texas! so wonderful so great!

Balochi in Iran

The Sistan and Baluchistan Province of Iran

  

Balochi in Afghanistan

Possibly cattle rustlers