Regards, Ivan
Posted on 03/28/2003 7:41:51 PM PST by MadIvan
The Pentagon is drawing up a blacklist of non-US companies investing in Iran's energy sector with a possible view to barring them from US-awarded contracts in the reconstruction of neighbouring Iraq, according to private-sector sources close to the US defence department.
The companies on the draft list include several from countries within the US-led "coalition of the willing", such as oil companies Shell of the UK and Italy's Eni. TotalFinaElf of France is also listed.
President George W. Bush last year identified Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil" that pursued weapons of mass destruction and aided terrorists.
A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the blacklist.
The Pentagon is listing companies regarded as being in breach of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (Ilsa). This provides for sanctions to be imposed on non-US companies that invest more than $20m a year in the energy sectors of the two countries, designated as state sponsors of terrorism.
The European Union says the act, passed in 1996 and renewed in 2001, is in breach of international trade rules. To date, the law has not been applied. Former President Bill Clinton issued a waiver for TotalFinaElf's investment in Iran, while other cases are under review.
An analyst of Iran-US relations, who asked not to be named, said the possible application of Ilsa would "kill two birds with one stone", by putting pressure on Iran and helping US companies.
The removal of Iran's Islamic theocracy is high on the wish list of senior hawks in the Bush administration. Richard Perle, until this week an influential adviser to the Pentagon, said recently he was optimistic that regime change in Iran would come about without US military intervention. But he denied knowledge of a Pentagon corporate blacklist.
Several large US companies do business in Iran through subsidiaries. Halliburton, the oil services company formerly headed by Dick Cheney, US vice-president, said this month it had agreed under shareholder pressure to review its operations in the country. A Halliburton unit later won a small contract to extinguish oil-well fires in Iraq.
Non-US companies fear they will be excluded from US government contracts in Iraq. A US official sought to calm concerns, saying there would be no restrictions on bidders "from the free world".
The US has yet to explain the delay in announcing the award of the first big reconstruction contract of $900m, which did not go through an open tender process.
The winner will be one of five selected US companies. Some work is expected to be subcontracted to non-US companies.
Regards, Ivan
A liberated, destroyed Iraq is every capitalist's dream.
A stable oil supply and the profits from the oil.
The dream of every modern nation.
Bush is simply brilliant.
Onward to Iran and Saudi Arabia. Korea and Syria can wait. Not much profit in camels or rice.
Does this mean 'no soup' for Russia as well? You really want to hurt them, starting calling in their IMF papers just when the price of oil is tanking.
Yep lets see, DF11, DF15, SS-N-22's, Shihab 3, 4, 5, 6, and soon 7's meaning ICBM's. Six months away from acquiring plutonium. Yea and the children will be Iran's saviors. Sure just like the Chinese students and splat they went. The same will happen in Iran. The Mullahs control the military and are just as brutal....
Iran should have been our first target, then Iraq and then NK....
Looks like the way is being cleared for Hutchison Whampoa to get the Iranian ports while Global Crossing gets the Iranian telecommunications franchise.
Bill mandates U.S. cellular tech for postwar Iraq
Hutchison Whampoa Snags Global Crossing
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