London, Oct 14, Irna
Other European members of the offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Consortium (OKIOC) are believed to already back an export route through Iran as voiced by ENI of Italy last week, according to energy compass.
It quoted sources close to the project saying they were �confident of receiving the backing� of such consortium members as
Royal Dutch/Shell, Statoil of Norway and BG (british gas.)
The two US members, Mobil and Philips, could join the Iranian pipeline plan at a �later stage� in the event of a warming in relations between Tehran and Washington, the executives also said.
ENI vice-president Domenico Spada spoke openly for the first time of support for a southern export route through Iran at the Oil Conference in Almaty on October 7.
Energy Compass said that it had learnt that the Italian company had already launched an internal study of the planned pipeline and was �pressing for a consortium to be set up to carry out a more intensive study.�
According to the vice President, state pipeline operator Kaztransoil, Kairgeldy Kabyldin, Kazakhstan has also begun discussions with a group of companies over a feasibility study for the Iran route. The weekly newsletter further reported that an international study of a route running from western Kazakhstan through Turkmenistan to north-east Iran has been carried out by Totalfina of France.
It suggested that an Iranian line could also carry liquids produced from Kazakhstan�s giant Karachaganak field, where ENI and BG both hold 32.5 per cent shares and Texaco of the US a 20 per cent stake.
Supporters of the route rule out the controversial undersea pipeline to link up with the US-backed Baku-Ceyhan line as far too costly. There are also grave doubts on whether a main pipeline to the Turkish port will ever be built.
A main argument for an Iranian pipeline, which is being opposed by Washington on political grounds, is the expected substantial growth
in Asian markets over the next decade, which contrasts with forecasts for Europe.
By Wallace Kaufman
Oct 14 (THE GLOBE)
On Wednesday the U.S. Senate decisively turned down President Clinton�s pleas that it ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Within hours of losing the battle for the most important foreign policy vote of his career, the President Clinton tried to blame it on �politics, pure and simple.� To most senators, even those supporting the president, the question was far from simple nor was it pure politics.
In the context of American history the Senate vote was rare and momentous. Of more than 1500 foreign treaties presented to the Senate, only 20 had been voted down, the last major one being the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. The effort to limit nuclear testing and weapons has been pursued by every president since Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. Even the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) that President Carter withdrew to protest Russia�s invasion of Afghanistan was finally ratified in 1996.
Did the U.S. Senate break with so much history for politics �pure and simple?� as the President claimed?
Supporters of the Treaty like to point out that some 154 countries have ratified it. Opponents say this is irrelevant since of the 44 countries that can produce nuclear weapons, only 25 have signed. Russian and Chinese leaders have signed the treaty but their legislatures have not ratified it. North Korea, India, and Pakistan have not signed or ratified.
President Clinton was the first world leader to sign the treaty in 1996. He signed with great fanfare at a session of the United Nations. His critics considered that move just one more foreign policy blunder to be recorded beside Somalia, the loss of nuclear secrets to China, rewarding the brutal regime of North Korea with food aid, nuclear reactors, fossil fuel, a soft line on Chinese human rights violations, and pouring money into a corrupt Russian government. Republicans also worried that the US military had grown increasingly weaker and more demoralized as salaries stagnated and work loads increased. The president came out for an increase in military pay and programs only this year.
The Senators who voted no distrusted both the President and the world�s present and future nuclear powers. They said no to both. As if to demonstrate the complexity of the issue, on the eve of the vote, Pakistan�s military overthrew its elected president. Pakistan exploded its first bomb early this year. Test ban treaty supporters said the treaty would freeze the nuclear programs in India and Pakistan.
Opponents said the increasing number of nuclear powers with dictators who were willing to break laws underlined the naivete of a treaty. A treaty, they said, would do little to deter countries like Iran, Iraq and North Korea who had signed then broken other international agreements. They also cited recent Central Intelligence Agency statements that not all nuclear explosions could be verified.
To add to the President�s problems and doubt in the Senate on October 8 scientists who must assure the safety and reliability of American nuclear weapons said nuclear testing might be necessary. Experts from the country�s three nuclear weapons laboratories said that computer simulations could not replace actual tests for at least five to ten years.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, dominated by Republican conservatives, had held up a vote for two years. The administration had often criticized the delay. Suddenly in September the Republicans advanced the treaty for a vote. The President and his supporters said they were not ready. They weren�t. By law they needed two thirds of the 100 Senators or 67 votes. Only 48 Senators voted yes.
Many Republicans and Democrats wanted to postpone the vote. Republicans laid down two major conditions, both reflecting their distrust of a president who was impeached and fined for lying under oath to a federal judge. First, he had to sign a statement saying he himself was asking to delay the vote (and would not blame the Senate). Second, he would have to promise not to use the delay only to bring up the issue in the middle of the 2000 presidential campaign. The president refused to keep the issue out of the campaign. The Senate proceeded to vote.
Both President Clinton and Vice President Gore immediately called the vote a partisan attack and started testing their political weapons by promising to make the treaty a major issue in next year�s campaign.
MOSCOW, Oct 14
(AFP)
Gunmen who seized seven hostages in Georgia�s breakaway Abkhazia province, including five UN military observers, have released four people, Georgian security sources said Thursday, cited by Interfax.
There was no immediate information about the identity of the freed captives.
An interpreter, a German doctor, and military observers from the Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland and Uruguay, were snatched Wednesday during a routine mission in the Kadorskaya gorge area in the northwestern part of the rebel province.
The zone is controlled by the Svan minority hostile to the Abkhaz authorities.
Oct 14 (RL/RFL)
The Parliament building in the capital of Pakistan is surrounded by troops. Whole personnel was removed from the building. The Parliament should held session the next day. Information on resignation of the President of Pakistan Rafik Tarar was not confirmed so far. Organizers of coup in Pakistan made no political statements so far. The Prime-Minister Navaz Sharif and number of other official are under home arrest. According to information, 400 supporter of Sharif and 20 correspondents were banned to leave the country. Leaders of many countries condemned the actions of military and called for restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.