http://www.serbia-info.com/news/2001-02/16/22419.html
The Guardian: Trans-Balkan pipeline
"the cause of the crisis in Yugoslavia"
February 16, 2001
London, February 15 (Tanjug) - According to
numerous western analysts, the US project of
the Trans-Balkan pipeline running from the
Caspian sea to the Albanian port of Vlore, is
the main cause of the tragic crisis in the former
Yugoslavia and the US intervention in Kosovo
and Metohija, the London Guardian writes
today.
All past doubts have been rejected, and the
western press did not pay attention to that, the
paper reminds, stressing that it becomes more clear that this US economic
interest is the leading motive of creating the crisis in the former Yugoslavia.
The London paper points to freelance researches of Keith Fisher and the
US Trade and Development Agency's paper published last May, which
assesses that the pipeline is a US strategic interest.
According to the paper, the pipeline will provide oil and gas to the US
market worth $600m a month, adding that the pipeline is necessary
because the oil coming from the Caspian sea will quickly surpass the safe
capacity of the Bosphorus.
In 1998, Bill Richardson, then US energy secretary, said that the pipeline
would make all countries from the Caspian to the Balkans politically and
economically reliant on the West, which is also a strategic goal.
It is obvious, The Guardian writes, that the former Yugoslavia, especially
Serbia, was a serious problem for the realization of the plan. The
intervention in Kosovo and Metohija was carried out in order to please
Albania, whose port of Vlore is the ultimate destination of the pipeline.
The project of the Trans-Balkan pipeline was made in early 90-s, and it is
due for approval next month, the paper writes.