- THE US said yesterday that
it plans to secure Iraqi oilfields if it invades the country and it is
looking at the possibility of using oil production to pay for post-war
reconstruction.
-
- However, last night it was warned that it would "reap
a terrible whirlwind" if it went ahead with this strategy in a second
Gulf war.
-
- Colin Powell, the US secretary of state,told NBC's Meet
the Press: "The oilfields are the property of the Iraqi people. And
if the coalition of forces goes into those oil fields, we would want to
protect those fields and make sure they are used to benefit the people
of Iraq and are not destroyed or damaged by the failing regime on the way
out the door."
-
- Mr Powell said that revenue generated from the oilfields
would be used "in accordance with international law and to benefit
the people of Iraq".
-
- Administration officials also say they planned to keep
the United Nations oil-for-food programme running, at least temporarily,
to ensure that post-invasion oil dollars are spent on the country's basic
needs.
-
- International oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, BP,
and Shell would want to take part in any rehabilitation of the country's
oil industry, analysts said.
-
- However, as the Bush administration neared a decision
on whether to take military action to eliminate Saddam Hussein's alleged
weapons of mass destruction, Mr Powell said it was seeking a diplomatic
solution to the nuclear crisis with North Korea.
-
- The apparent inconsistency in US foreign policy towards
Iraq was seized upon by George Galloway, Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin.
He said: "The point of the invasion is to steal Iraq's oil. This is
naked confirmation that they intend to seize it, ramp up production, and
thus cut the price of oil.
-
- "They are no longer hiding the purpose of aggression,
and they are fooling themselves if they think they are fooling the Arab
population. I am speaking from Egypt, where a US state department poll
has just revealed that only 6% of Egyptians have a favourable view of the
United States. They are going to reap a terrible whirlwind from all of
this."
-
- Iraq sits on top of the world's second largest oil reserves,
but war and a decade of sanctions has withered its oil infrastructure and
official exports. The Bush administration is carefully weighing how oil
policy in a post-Saddam Iraq might affect oil prices, officials say. Its
decision could have implications for the fragile global economy.
-
- Increasing Iraqi oil production may help Western nations
that consume oil, including the US, by lowering oil prices. However, it
could hurt key US oil-producing allies, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia,
by reducing their revenues from oil sales.
-
- As UN arms experts searched four suspect sites in Iraq,
Washington signalled it was increasing the pressure on Baghdad by sending
more troops, aircraft. and ships to the Gulf.
-
- US officials said Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary,
had signed an order to move thousands of troops, dozens of strike aircraft
and probably two more aircraft carrier battle groups to the Gulf, starting
early next month.
-
- The deployment would at least double the 50,000 US military
personnel already near Iraq, and more might be sent in February, US officials
said.
-
- US and British warplanes yesterday attacked two Iraqi
radar sites after Iraqi forces moved them into the southern "no-fly"
zone, the US central command said, adding that the radar system posed a
threat to allied patrols over the zone.
-
- More than 100 UN weapons inspectors are now in Iraq,
but the 200 searches they have carried out since November 27 have apparently
uncovered no trace of the chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes
Washington insists Iraq is pursuing.
-
- Mr Powell, indicating frustration with the inspectors'
slow progress, said: "I think that this can't go on indefinitely.
The president has not made a decision yet with respect to the use of military
force or with respect to going back to the United Nations.
-
- "Of course we're positioning ourselves - positioning
our military forces for whatever might be required."
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- http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/30-12-19102-1-15-53.html
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