IP: Control of Central Asia's oil is the real goal

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "Mark White" <mark_white () eglobal net>
>
> For all the talk of international alliances and the future of
> Afghanistan, the real game in Central Asia is control of the region's
> lucrative oil supply.
>
> Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia has kept Central Asia's huge
> oil and gas reserves bottled up by restricting access to export
> pipelines - all of which run over Russian territory.
>
> One of the main reasons that Washington supported the Taliban between
> 1994 and 1997 was the attempt by the US oil giant Unocal to build a gas
> pipeline from Turkmenistan, through Taliban-controlled southern
> Afghanistan, to Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. At the time, the US and
> Unocal hoped the Taliban would swiftly conquer the country.
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/0110/25/world/world9.html


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