TY Baker!
A Stinky Methane Trail
A pattern of sabotage and blaming others has emerged among NATO countries, evoking past evidence of US scapegoating. Where can we turn for responsible leadership?
According to Alain Juillet, former Director of Intelligence at France’s Directorate-General for External Security, the Russians had no interest in blowing up a pipeline that they could simply turn off. On the other hand, a functioning pipeline was a risk to NATO’s raison d’être. The winter cold might cause Germany to lose resolve, and run back to Russia to re-negotiate opening the pipeline.
If we follow the money, we can see US liquid natural gas exporters boosted shipments to Europe by more than 137% in the first 11 months of 2022 from the same period in 2021, according to data from Kpler. The US now supplies more than half of Europe’s imported liquid natural gas at elevated prices.
As Alain Juillet, explained to the French Senate, the war broke out in Syria right after signing a deal for a gas pipeline. Unfortunately, the history of this region has been manipulated because of its rich natural resources. Alain Juillet, given his considerable experience, is in one of the best positions to formulate a realistic and dispassionate vision of the geostrategic stakes.
It was the fight over gas that transformed a peaceful country into a brutal one.
Juillet points out that, “Yes, Syria is a dictatorship, but so are most countries in the Middle East.” The real conflict goes back 20 years to when the Iranians discovered the world’s largest gas field, the South Pars/North Dome natural-gas condensate field in the Persian Gulf, in Iran. “At the time, everyone said, It’s a great deposit, you have to exploit it, and on both sides, the Qatari and the Iranians reflected on how to go about it,” Juillet says.
The Qataris had the idea, supported by Saudi Arabia, to make a pipeline that would leave from Qatar, go up through Arabia and Syria, and then plug into the South Stream ― that’s the pipeline that passes through Turkey and brings gas to Europe. This was a great project because this gas was going to Europe via the South. Russia was going to allow it to bypass the entire northern part of Europe.
On the other hand, the Iranians, realizing that they were going to have a significant amount of gas available without outlets on the west side, had the idea of laying a pipeline from Iran through Iraq, because as in Iran, the Shiites also control Iraq. Then, it would turn towards Syria to create a gas outlet at the port of Tartus in Syria.
This plan would allow the Iranians to sell their gas to all Western countries around the Mediterranean, including northern countries such as France.
The project took shape in 2010. In 2011, President Bashar held in his hands both folders: the Qatari proposal to make a pipe that would pass through Syria to go to Turkey, and the Iranian proposal to go directly from Iran to Syria, and from there directly towards the Mediterranean.
“Bashar Assad signed official agreements with Iran in 2011 choosing the pipeline going through Iraq to Syria and into the Mediterranean”, Juillet said. It was no coincidence that three weeks later, divisive rhetoric started brewing, and Syrians began rebelling.
“We can therefore legitimately ask whether this is a war of liberation or a gas war,”
— Alain Juillet, former Director of Intelligence at the DGSE
Now the US, in Syria on another “regime change operation,” has been caught with its pants down. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the US is sanctioning to death the very rebels it had originally flown in to back.
https://impakter.com/methane-trail-us-sabotage-nord-stream-pipeline-gas-war/