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CounterPunch
April 1,
2003
The Pipeline
to Haifa
Israeli Minister Dreams
of Iraqi Oil
By AKIVA ELDAR
National Infrastructures Minister Joseph Paritzky
has requested an assessment of the condition of the old oil pipeline
from Mosul to Haifa, with an eye toward renewing the flow of
oil in the event of friendly post-war regime in Iraq.
Paritzky explained to Haaretz yesterday
that resurrecting the pipeline to Haifa could save Israel the
high cost of shipping oil from Russia. He is certain that the
Americans would respond favorably to the idea, since the pipeline
would bring Iraqi oil directly to the Mediterranean.
The flow of oil from Mosul was redirected
from Haifa to Syria after the British Mandate for Palestine expired
in 1948. There were several attempts to renew the flow of oil
to Haifa in subsequent years. One such effort occurred during
the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s, after Syria acceded to a request
from Iran to block the flow of Iraqi oil to the Mediterranean.
(Iran was then preventing oil tankers from moving Iraqi oil via
the Persian Gulf.) The prime minister at the time, Yitzhak Shamir,
proposed to Iraq to renew the flow of oil through the pipeline
to Haifa.
Hanan Bar-On, then the deputy director-general
of the Foreign Ministry, confirmed yesterday that Israel was
involved in talks during the mid-1980s on a plan for an Iraq-Jordanian
pipeline to the Red Sea port of Aqaba. Among the participants
in these talks was Donald Rumsfeld, then an adviser to U.S. president
Reagan and currently secretary of defense. The American corporation
Bechtel was slated to build the pipeline. According to the deal,
which eventually fell through, Israel was to receive about $100
million a year via former Israeli businessman Bruce Rappaport
in return for a commitment not to oppose the construction or
operation of the new pipeline.
In 1987, energy minister Moshe Shahal
reportedly looked into the idea of helping Iraq export its oil
via the Golan Heights to Haifa. But this plan also failed to
materialize.
Bar-On recalled that during the same
period, the possibility of laying a pipeline along the Jordan
Valley and Arava, and then along the Egyptian border to the Mediterranean.
"We wanted to ensure the economic interests of the Iraqis,
Jordanians, and Egyptians in order to create motivation to preserve
the stability in the region and as a foundation for peaceful
relations."
Akiva Eldar
writes for Ha'aretz.
Yesterday's
Features
David
Lindorff
Liberating Iraqis from Their Homes
Neve Gordon
A Different Kind of Despair
John
Chuckman
Absurdities and Contradictions
Ron Jacobs
Bernie Sanders Voting Maybe on
War
Wayne
Madsen
The Siege of Washington
Mark Franchetti
Slaughter at the Bridge of Death
Robert
Fisk
Blood and Bandages of the Innocent
Robin Cook
Send Our Soldiers Home
Anthony
Gancarski
Investigate Perle
Uri Avnery
The Devil's Dictionary
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 03/31
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