« THE ART OF WAR »
Who are the arsonists of the petrol
tankers in the Gulf?
by Manlio
Dinucci
While the United States prepared a new
escalation of tension in the Middle East by accusing Iran of attacking petrol
tankers in the Gulf of Oman, Italian vice-Prime Minister Matteo Salvini met
with one of the artisans of this strategy in Washington, Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo, assuring him that
« Italy wants to regain its place as the major partner on the European
continent of the greatest Western democracy ». Thereby he has allied Italy
with the operation launched by Washington.
The « Gulf of Oman
affair » , a casus belli against Iran, is a carbon copy of the
« Gulf of Tonkin affair » of 4 August 1964, itself used as a casus
belli to bomb North Vietnam, which was accused of having attacked a US
torpedo boat (an accusation which was later proved to be false).
Today, a video released by Washington
shows the crew of an alleged Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded mine
from the hull of a petrol tanker in order to conceal its origin (because the
mine would allegedly have borne the inscription « Made in Iran »).
With this « proof » - a
veritable insult to our intelligence - Washington is attempting to camouflage
the goal of the operation. It is part of the strategy aimed at controlling the
world reserves of oil and natural gas and their energy corridors [1].
It is no coincidence if Iran and Iraq are in US crosshairs. Their total oil
reserves are greater than those of Saudi Arabia, and five times greater than
those of the United States. Iranian reserves of natural gas are approximately
2.5 times those of the USA. Venezuela finds itself targeted by the USA for the
same reason, since it is the country which owns the greatest oil reserves in
the world.
The control of
the energy corridors is of capital importance. By accusing Iran of attempting to
« interrupt the flow of oil through the Straights of Hormuz », Mike
Pompeo announced that « the United States will defend freedom of
navigation ». In other words, he has announced that the United States want
to gain military control of this key area for energy supplies, including for
Europe, by preventing above all the transit of Iranian oil (to which Italy and
other European countries cannot in any case enjoy free access because of the US
embargo).
Ø
Low-cost Iranian natural gas
might also have reached Europe by way of a pipeline crossing Iraq and Syria.
But the project, launched in 2011, was destroyed by the USA/NATO operation to
demolish the Syrian state.
Ø
Natural gas might also have
arrived directly in Italy from Russia, and from there be distributed to other
European countries with notable
economical advantages, via the South Stream route through the Black Sea.
But the pipeline, already in an advanced stage of construction, was blocked in
2014 by the pressure of the United States and European Union itself, with heavy
prejudice for Italy.
In fact it was the reproduction of North
Stream which continued, making Germany the centre of triage for Russian
gas. Then, on the basis of the « USA/UE strategic cooperation in the
energy field » agreement stipulated in July 2018, US exports of liquefied
natural gas (LNG) to the UE tripled. The
triage centre was in Poland, from which was distributed the « Freedom
Gas » which also arrived in Ukraine.
Washington's objective is strategic – to
hurt Russia by replacing Russian gas in Europe with US gas. But we have no
guarantees, neither on the price, nor on the time-scale for US gas extracted
from the bituminous shale by the technique known as fracking (hydraulic
fracturation), which is disastrous for the environment.
So what does
Matteo Salvini have to say about all that? When he arrived in the «greatest democracy
in the Western world », he proudly declared - «I am part of a
government which in Europe is no longer satisfied with breadcrumbs».
9 April 2019.
il manifesto, 18 June 2019
Translator: Pete Kimberley
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