The Iraqi government announced today that it has filed a former protest over “improper use of force” related to repeated Iranian shelling of Iraqi Kurdistan over the past 12 days.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has been angrily complaining about the shelling, and reports of Iranian incursions, for days, and report that at least one civlian, a 14 year old girl, was slain in one of the air raids.
Attacks against the semi-autonomous Kurdistan are nothing new, and both Iran and Turkey have been launching salvos intermittently basically since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
The attacks are aimed at Kurdish rebel groups that use the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan as a staging area, and generally have been shrugged off by the Iraqi national government and the US occupation forces. As bombardments get closer and closer to the region’s more remote towns, such casualties and scrutiny will almost certainly increase.
In the pipeline: More regime change
By Hooman Peimani
An Israeli daily, Ha'aretz, has reported that Israel is seriously considering restarting a strategically important oil pipeline that once transferred oil from the Iraqi city of Mosul to Israel's northern port of Haifa. Given the Israeli claim of a positive US approach to the plan, the Israeli project provides grounds for a theory that the ongoing war against Iraq is in part a joint US, British and Israeli design for reshaping the Middle East to serve their particular interests, including their oil requirements.
According to the daily, Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky considers the pipeline project as economically justifiable as it would reduce the country's cost of oil imports. This is currently very high, as Israel imports oil from Russia. There would also be a strategic justification for the project, as importing oil from an oil supplier in Israel's close proximity would increase its fuel security and would address its major handicap, that is, its total dependence on imported fuel from far-away suppliers. While living in the oil-rich Middle East, the Israelis cannot count on regional oil exporters because of the existing Arab-Israeli conflict. Prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution, Iran, which was on friendly terms with Israel, provided its oil requirements. That arrangement ended in 1979 when the new Iranian revolutionary regime cut ties with Israel.
Paritzky has requested an assessment of the Mosul-Haifa pipeline's current state, which ceased to operate in 1948. Presumably, the pipeline will require major repair and/or upgrading, if not an overhaul, as it has not been in use for more than half a century. However, its full operation, including the required repair work, needs the consent of Iraq, the would-be oil supplier, and Syria, a country neighboring both Iraq and Israel, through which the pipeline passes….
Asia Times April 4,2003 [excerpt]
Many of the neocons in the Bush Administrations who pushed for war in Iraq, were Zionists… thousands of young US Goyim soldiers have sacrificed their lives, limbs and sanity fighting the war 'Israel had to have.' Note the White Paper: "A Clean Break – A New Strategy For Securing the Realm" and the Zionist push for a 'greater Israel.'
I too am a reader of Asia Times. Here is another article speaking of Israel in Northern Iraq, and the services given the Kurds from Israeli commandos: Asia Times 26 June 2004 "Israel and Iran chart collision course."
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Israel obviously needs more war to secure the pipeline to deliver Iraqi oil to feed the Netanyahu envisioned Israel super economy… was the slaughter of so many Turkish peace passengers aboard the Marvi Marmarra a Netanyhu 'more war' strategy – start a war against Turkey (and Iran) to give a boost semi autonomous Kurdistan?
Israel Approaches Turkey for Reactivation of Mosul-Haifa Pipeline
Thursday, April 17 2003
Istanbul, TURKEY, April 17, 2003 – Israel has made an offer to Turkish contacting firms to reactivate the Mosul-Haifa pipeline, which has been closed for the last 55 years. Not only the Israeli government but also Israeli firms have reportedly approached Turkish companies for an oil pipeline that would provide transportation of 5 million barrels of oil from northern Iraq to the Israeli port of Haifa.
Turkish Contractors Union Chairman Nihat Ozdemir confirmed the offers from Israel and noted that a considerable part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline construction had been carried out by Turkish firms. Pointing out that Turkish construction firms had important experience in the subject of international oil transportation, Ozdemir said that it was "normal" that Turkish firms had been chosen to rebuild the pipeline.
Turk.US
IF YOU THINK GAS IS HIGH NOW, WAIT UNTILL ISRAEL CONTROLS THE VALVE.
Recall that Syria was part of the US Coalition in the First Gulf War.