Bizarrely, Iran and the US appear to be on the same side in the ongoing internecine warfare in Iraq. Both nations appear to want the current Shi’ite government to remain in power and strengthen their hold on power. More and more Iran and Iraq are drawing together not just in rhetoric, and not just in ethnic ties, but in infrastructure and resource management:
BEIRUT(Reuters) – Iraq’s Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari will sign landmark oil and power agreements with the Iranian government next week to help solve an energy crisis in Iraq, a senior Iraqi official said on Thursday.
Continued:
The agreements reflect a shift in policy by the new U.S.-backed Iraqi government which came to power in May and opted for closer ties with Iran, although both countries fought an eight-year war in the 1980s.
The deals comprise a 40 km (25 mile) oil pipeline between the Iraqi oil centre of Basra and Iran’s Abadan port, using Iran’s Caspian ports to import refined fuels into Iraq from central Asia and linking the electricity grid of the two countries, the official said.
Mismanagement and sabotage against power facilities have turned Iraq into an importer of refined fuels, mostly from Turkey and the Gulf, after the U.S.-invasion in 2003, and created severe energy shortages. (source)
An interesting article. Importation of oil? Severe energy shortages? In Iraq. Iraq, home of the second largest oil reserves in the world? THAT Iraq? Our mismanagement of the peace — and the resulting shortages of fossil fuels, of all things — in Iraq has now led to a formal Iraq/Iran energy alliance.
What does this mean for Bush’s anti-Iran rhetoric and action? Does anyone view this alliance as a good thing? Will Bush ever be held responsible for his bungling of post-war Iraq? What further monstrous developments will be spawned from the desperation of a wheezing and dilapidated Iraq?