Trans-Balkan pipeline behind US intervention in Kosovo

magellan magellan at west.com.br
Wed Jul 4 11:55:26 PDT 2001


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.



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