Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 19:18:58 -0500
From: "Ralph D. McAtee" rmcatee@usit.net

I've been trying to find some other related articles to back-up this crazy idea that we are in Kosovo because of Oil. An article in the Iranian News stated:

TEHRAN, May 4 (AFP) - Iran is about to construct a pipeline to ship crude oil from the Caspian Sea to refineries in Tehran and Tabriz, a city near the Turkish border, and on toEurope, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh was quoted as saying Monday.

The 300-kilometer (180-mile) pipeline will connect Neka, in northern Mazandaran province bordering the Caspian, to the capital and on to Tabriz, in East Azerbaijan province.

He said studies had been completed on the pipeline which has a capacity to ship 380,000 barrels of crude a day.

Jomhuri Islami newspaper, citing an "informed" source, said the project would cost 400 million dollars and take about 30 months to complete. It will be offered for international bids by mid-June.

The minister said the pipeline was the best way to export oil drilled from the Caspian. "We believe that no other route has as much economic justification as this one," he said.

The United States, which is gaining growing influence in the Caspian region, has pushed for alternative routes, bypassing Iran, to ship oil and gas to Europe.

US companies signed a deal with Turkmenistan last month for feasibility studies to transfer Turkmen oil from under the sea.

Similar agreements have been reached with Azerbaijan. Zangeneh warned that "efforts to politicize the issue place heavy financial burdens on the other four countries which border the mineral-rich Caspian Sea" -- Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

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Any others who feel that we aren't just there trying to prevent " ethnic cleansing "?
 

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