Cheney, Bush threaten Iran while al-Maliki and Iran will sign mutually beneficial oil pipeline deal

[seafan]

Cheney urging strikes on Iran, August 9, 2007





Bush warns Iraq over ties with Iran, August 9, 2007



US President George W. Bush, seen here addressing a press conference, sternly warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Thursday against cozying up to Iran, amid what Washington sees as unsettling signs of warming Baghdad-Tehran relations.(AFP/Karen Bleier)




From Juan Cole, August 10, 2007

Even the famously tongue-tied George W. Bush has never outdone himself in producing diplomatic confusion the way he did on Thursday-- as Farideh Farhi points out at our group blog. First, he faced the difficulty that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki affirmed that Iran is playing a helpful role in Iraq. This statement came on the heels of a similar assertion by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which Bush contradicted. So he contradicted al-Maliki, as well.

Somehow, unlike Fox Cable News, US allies in the Middle East don't seem to be able just to parrot White House talking points. But Bush in correcting al-Maliki got off on a flight of rhetoric and seemed to be addressing him personally with a threat. Later on he had to clarify that the threat was directed against Iran, not al-Maliki.

Al-Maliki is a longtime activist of the Islamic Call Party (Da`wa), which sought refuge in Iran during the 1980s and 1990s from Saddam Hussein's persecution. Da`wa has every reason to be deeply indebted to Iran and can't be expected to badmouth the ayatollahs. Bush seems to be continually surprised to find that he has put Iran's allies in power in Kabul and Baghdad.

Attempting to explain why al-Maliki was so warmly greeting the Iranian officials he was meeting Bush said, '"You don't want the picture to be kind of, you know, duking it out," Bush said, holding up his fists like a boxer as he called Iran "a very troubling nation" that must be isolated.'

Iran's press stressed that Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei pledged full Iranian support for the elected government of Iraq, urged unity among all Iraq's religious and sectarian groups, and said that peace would only return when US troops departed the country.

And al-Maliki, in Tehran this week, engaged in talks of cooperation in an oil pipeline that will benefit both Iran and Iraq.... this has just got to tick Bush/Cheney off *big time*.


http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8605190104">Iran, Iraq to Sign Pipeline Deal

August 10, 2007

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran and Iraq will sign a deal in the next few days to build a pipeline that would transfer crude from southern Iraqi oilfields to refineries in Iran, a senior Iranian official said yesterday.

Iraq announced in May it had agreed to begin discussions with Iran over the pipeline that will carry 200,000 barrels of Iraqi crude to Iran per day.

"Based on this contract the Iraqi crude will be imported and oil products will be exported (to Iraq)," Iran's first vice-president Parviz Davoudi said.

He said Iraqi oil minister Hussain Al Shahristani would visit Tehran "in coming days." Davoudi was speaking after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki who visited Tehran on Wednesday and Thursday.

Iraq, which has faced chronic fuel shortages, is now looking to build four refineries and has asked Iranian firms to bid for such contracts across the country. Decades of wars, sanctions and underinvestment have slowed a recovery in Iraq's oil output.

.....

Is it any wonder why Bush and Cheney are ramping up the shrill war drums against Iran?

[CoffeeCat]

1. If Iran and Iraq...

...are on good terms and joining forces on energy/economic endeavors---doesn't
that make a US-led attack on Iran seem that much more ridiculous?

Could this possibly be a scenario? ...The US knows it will attack Iran soon.
If they have the Iraq oil going from Iraq to Iran...this further ensures that we
control the oil in the region, because we will have a strong presence in both
Iraq and Iran.

Either Al Maliki is totally in defiance of BushCo---or this is a BushCo
sanctioned move that will benefit the US corporatist greedmongers in many
ways.

[partylessinOhio]

2. Bush/Cheney need to butt out of Middle Eastern countries and let

them conduct their own business. How much damn oil does Darth need to keep his ticker tickin'?

Iran and Iraq are neighbors. If they can work together in peace that's a winner.

(Get on this, Nancy, and get these jerks out of office.)