{"id":330,"date":"2007-08-26T13:50:34","date_gmt":"2007-08-26T17:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=330"},"modified":"2007-08-26T13:50:34","modified_gmt":"2007-08-26T17:50:34","slug":"learning-to-love-tehran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=330","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Love Tehran?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>When I<\/title>When I&#8217;m not musing on the news, I&#8217;m waiting for it.<\/p>\n<p>In this instance, I&#8217;m waiting for Cheney to embrace the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=327\">a recent post<\/a>, I  suggested that a Russia hawk like Cheney could easily learn to love the  Iranians:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>From Cheney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, it might even be argued (as he did during the  \t1990s), that Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u201cas a Caspian regional power\u00e2\u20ac\u201cwould do well to align itself  \tnot with Russia or China, but with the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The sub-headline of a recent article in <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/world\/europe\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9687845\"> The Economist<\/a><\/em> helps make the point.\u00c2\u00a0 The article is entitled, &#8220;Too  energetic a friendship &#8211; Turkey and Iran: An attempt to bypass Russia annoys the  United States.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>An attempt to bypass Russia annoys the United States<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n<p>Only folks Cheney used to decry as &#8220;sanctions happy&#8221; local politicians  beholden to the Israel lobby would forfeit a shot to bypass Russia in the quest  to deliver Caspian energy to Europe.<\/p>\n<p>As <em>The Economist<\/em> explains, this is the &#8220;paradox&#8221; of US policy toward  Iran.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Cocking a snook at America seems an odd way to launch a second term in  \toffice for a government eager to prove its pro-Western credentials. Yet that  \tis what Turkey&#8217;s mildly Islamist Justice and Development party (AK) appears  \tto be doing, just weeks after its landslide victory in the July 22nd  \tparliamentary election.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey&#8217;s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dispatched his energy  \tminister, Hilmi Guler, to Iran last week where he concluded a raft of deals.  \tThey include the establishment of a joint company to carry up to 35 billion  \tcubic metres of Iranian natural gas via Turkey to Europe, and the  \tconstruction of three thermal power plants by Turkish companies in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>America swiftly complained. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you ask our opinion, do we think it&#8217;s the  \tright moment to be making investments in the Iranian oil and gas sector, no  \twe don&#8217;t,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sniffed a State Department spokesman.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Erdogan&#8217;s critics have seized on his dealings with Iran as proof that he  \tis trying to steer Turkey away from the West. In fact, they have just the  \topposite aim&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>EU countries import half their energy, with around a fifth of their oil and  \tgas coming from Russia&#8217;s state monopoly, Gazprom&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Russia&#8217;s use of its energy riches to flex its muscles on the world stage is  \tone reason why America is lobbying so hard for the creation of an east-west  \tenergy corridor\u00e2\u20ac\u201da network of oil and gas pipelines running from former  \tSoviet Central Asia and Azerbaijan via Turkey, and on to European markets&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Turkey has turned to Iran, according to Necdet Pamir, a veteran Turkish  \tenergy analyst. <strong>Iranian gas would not only help to fill the Nabucco  \tpipeline<\/strong>, another mooted conduit from the Middle East or Central Asia, \t<strong>bypassing Russia<\/strong>, but would also reduce Turkey&#8217;s own dependence on  \tRussian supplies: over half of Turkey&#8217;s natural-gas demand is met by Gazprom&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<strong>The paradox for America is that Iran is the only country other than Iraq  \tthat can truly undermine Russia&#8217;s [energy] supremacy<\/strong>,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d observes Mr Pamir.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Funny, the Russians seem to understand this and are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.turkishdailynews.com.tr\/article.php?enewsid=78530\">allegedly  quite concerned<\/a> about the Iranian-Turkish pipeline deal.<\/p>\n<p>So, what prevents Cheney from <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=263\">reverting to his old  position in favor of doing business with Iran<\/a>, especially after <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=291\">Putin&#8217;s recent Caspian  coup<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>One possible answer: the <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=157\">power of the Israel lobby<\/a>,  especially in a <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=172\">Congress  controlled by Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe his Right Zionist allies&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB118739533381601535.html?mod=googlenews_wsj\">very  hawkish on the incumbent Iranian regime<\/a>, at least for now&#8211;will revert to <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=278\">their old position in  favor of an anti-Arab tilt toward the revolutionary Iranian regime<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For now, I&#8217;m just waiting for news of that shoe to drop.<\/p>\n<p>Unless it is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commentarymagazine.com\/cm\/main\/viewArticle.html?id=10882\"> the bomb<\/a> that is going to drop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When IWhen I&#8217;m not musing on the news, I&#8217;m waiting for it. In this instance, I&#8217;m waiting for Cheney to embrace the Iranian regime. In a recent post, I suggested that a Russia hawk like Cheney could easily learn to love the Iranians: From Cheney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, it might even be argued (as he did during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,23,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}