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CLINTON IN BAKU AMID RUSSIAN-IRANIAN FRICTION OVER AZERI STAKE IN ISRAELI ENERGY
Debka File
http://www.debka.com/article/22059/Clinton-in-Baku-amid-Russian-Iranian-friction-over-Azeri-stake-in-Israeli-energy-
June 6 2012
Israel
DEBKAfile Special Report June 6, 2012, 1:22 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags:
Hillary Clinton Azerbaijan Israel arms deal Energy & Oil Iran Russia
Richard Morningstar, designated US ambassador to BakuUS Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton arrives in Baku, Azerbaijan Wednesday, June 6, to
kick off a South Caucasian tour amid President Ilam Aliyav's worsening
relations Israel Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Baku's pro-Western orientation and its fast-growing
military and energy ties with Israel are thorns in both their sides.
But for Washington, Azerbaijan is an expanding strategic asset:
Since Pakistan closed its overland route for supplies to US and NATO
forces in Afghanistan, the US is increasingly reliant on Azerbaijan's
airfields. Its logistical value will rise with the advance of the
2014 date for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Clinton will have another go, after several failures, at resolving
the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over which Russia and Iran
side with Armenia against Azerbaijan. The day she landed in Baku,
Armenian forces killed five Azerbaijani soldiers in a border clash.
Washington has never admitted its direct involvement in the bilateral
ties unfolding between Baku and Jerusalem but its generally understand
that those ties act as a thin wedge through America's door to the
region. It is significant that the party welcoming the US secretary in
the Azerbaijan capital includes Richard L. Morningstar, whom President
Barack Obama picked in May as ambassador to the small oil republic. He
is still awaiting congressional endorsement.
debkafile's Middle East sources report that Morningstar is the
architect of the Obama administration's oil and gas policy in Central
Asia opposite Russia and Iran, as well as the linchpin of US energy
policy in the Middle East. He was present at all the negotiations
leading up to the contracts signed by Israel, Greece and Cyprus for
the distribution of offshore Mediterranean gas and oil beds. His
presence bespoke the administration's support for the investment in
their exploitation by American oil interests.
It may be presumed that Morningstar was in on the newly-signed $1.6
billion contract for the sale of Israeli arms to Azerbaijan - although
Washington is unlikely to confirm this.
Moscow and Tehran are particularly put out by this deal in the regional
context, concerned that it will enhance Azerbaijan's military clout
in the Caucasian and the Caspian Sea. With a well-equipped militlary,
he will be a lot freer to pursue an independent energy policy and
less vulnerable to pressures from Tehran and Moscow.
Regarding the second side of the relatationship, towards the end of
2011, the Azerbaijan state-owned Caspian Drilling Company quietly
signed a contract for the acquisition of a 5 percent share in the firm
controlling the Israeli Med Ashdod, which is developing an offshore
field estimated to hold 280 million barrels of oil. This was the
first Azeri investment in a foreign energy project.
Soon after the signing, in November 2011, a secret meeting took place
in London between representatives of the Russian energy colossus
Gazprom and Israel to discuss a Russian bid to acquire a stake in
Med Ashdod.
Moscow also put out secret feelers for stakes in additional Israeli
gas and oil Mediterranean projects. One offer was for the Russians to
provide and finance pumping facilities and pipelines for the Israeli
fields and take charge of marketing to Europe. Vladimir Putin, while
running for president, quietly lobbied top Israeli officials to gain
their support for Moscow's partnership proposition.
In the last week of April this year, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman spent two days in Baku. The talks he held there with Azeri
leaders were veiled in secrecy, but sources in Baku said they were
concerned with the highly important laying down of guidelines for the
rapidly-evolving security and energy ties between the two countries.
In 2011, Israel purchased one-third of its oil consumption from
Azerbaijan - 2.5 million barrels worth $2 billion dollars, and the
volume of trade between them rose to $4 billion, making that Caspian
country Israel's biggest trading partner in the former Soviet bloc.
The military and intelligence ties between Baku and Jerusalem have been
consistently kept under wraps, but while Moscow and Tehran knew about
them, they never expected them to expand to their present magnitude.
The deal today holds Azerbaijan's investments in Israel's burgeoning
energy industry contingent on the scale of its arms purchases. Both
elements of this trade-off are earmarked for massive growth.
According to European energy sources, Azerbaijan's aspirations go
beyond investment in developing Israel's Mediterranean gas and oil
fields and extend to bidding for a role with American energy firms
in laying the pipelines planned to carry the oil to European outlets.
This would make Baku a rival for Putin's ambitions to carve out a
place in the new markets for Gazprom.
In the view of some Western military experts, the interface between the
Azerbaijani and Israeli energy and military spheres offers Jerusalem
a strategic pathway to the Caspian region under Iran's nose, as well
a lucrative source of revenue for its arms industry for years go come.
Debka File
http://www.debka.com/article/22059/Clinton-in-Baku-amid-Russian-Iranian-friction-over-Azeri-stake-in-Israeli-energy-
June 6 2012
Israel
DEBKAfile Special Report June 6, 2012, 1:22 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags:
Hillary Clinton Azerbaijan Israel arms deal Energy & Oil Iran Russia
Richard Morningstar, designated US ambassador to BakuUS Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton arrives in Baku, Azerbaijan Wednesday, June 6, to
kick off a South Caucasian tour amid President Ilam Aliyav's worsening
relations Israel Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Baku's pro-Western orientation and its fast-growing
military and energy ties with Israel are thorns in both their sides.
But for Washington, Azerbaijan is an expanding strategic asset:
Since Pakistan closed its overland route for supplies to US and NATO
forces in Afghanistan, the US is increasingly reliant on Azerbaijan's
airfields. Its logistical value will rise with the advance of the
2014 date for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Clinton will have another go, after several failures, at resolving
the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict over which Russia and Iran
side with Armenia against Azerbaijan. The day she landed in Baku,
Armenian forces killed five Azerbaijani soldiers in a border clash.
Washington has never admitted its direct involvement in the bilateral
ties unfolding between Baku and Jerusalem but its generally understand
that those ties act as a thin wedge through America's door to the
region. It is significant that the party welcoming the US secretary in
the Azerbaijan capital includes Richard L. Morningstar, whom President
Barack Obama picked in May as ambassador to the small oil republic. He
is still awaiting congressional endorsement.
debkafile's Middle East sources report that Morningstar is the
architect of the Obama administration's oil and gas policy in Central
Asia opposite Russia and Iran, as well as the linchpin of US energy
policy in the Middle East. He was present at all the negotiations
leading up to the contracts signed by Israel, Greece and Cyprus for
the distribution of offshore Mediterranean gas and oil beds. His
presence bespoke the administration's support for the investment in
their exploitation by American oil interests.
It may be presumed that Morningstar was in on the newly-signed $1.6
billion contract for the sale of Israeli arms to Azerbaijan - although
Washington is unlikely to confirm this.
Moscow and Tehran are particularly put out by this deal in the regional
context, concerned that it will enhance Azerbaijan's military clout
in the Caucasian and the Caspian Sea. With a well-equipped militlary,
he will be a lot freer to pursue an independent energy policy and
less vulnerable to pressures from Tehran and Moscow.
Regarding the second side of the relatationship, towards the end of
2011, the Azerbaijan state-owned Caspian Drilling Company quietly
signed a contract for the acquisition of a 5 percent share in the firm
controlling the Israeli Med Ashdod, which is developing an offshore
field estimated to hold 280 million barrels of oil. This was the
first Azeri investment in a foreign energy project.
Soon after the signing, in November 2011, a secret meeting took place
in London between representatives of the Russian energy colossus
Gazprom and Israel to discuss a Russian bid to acquire a stake in
Med Ashdod.
Moscow also put out secret feelers for stakes in additional Israeli
gas and oil Mediterranean projects. One offer was for the Russians to
provide and finance pumping facilities and pipelines for the Israeli
fields and take charge of marketing to Europe. Vladimir Putin, while
running for president, quietly lobbied top Israeli officials to gain
their support for Moscow's partnership proposition.
In the last week of April this year, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman spent two days in Baku. The talks he held there with Azeri
leaders were veiled in secrecy, but sources in Baku said they were
concerned with the highly important laying down of guidelines for the
rapidly-evolving security and energy ties between the two countries.
In 2011, Israel purchased one-third of its oil consumption from
Azerbaijan - 2.5 million barrels worth $2 billion dollars, and the
volume of trade between them rose to $4 billion, making that Caspian
country Israel's biggest trading partner in the former Soviet bloc.
The military and intelligence ties between Baku and Jerusalem have been
consistently kept under wraps, but while Moscow and Tehran knew about
them, they never expected them to expand to their present magnitude.
The deal today holds Azerbaijan's investments in Israel's burgeoning
energy industry contingent on the scale of its arms purchases. Both
elements of this trade-off are earmarked for massive growth.
According to European energy sources, Azerbaijan's aspirations go
beyond investment in developing Israel's Mediterranean gas and oil
fields and extend to bidding for a role with American energy firms
in laying the pipelines planned to carry the oil to European outlets.
This would make Baku a rival for Putin's ambitions to carve out a
place in the new markets for Gazprom.
In the view of some Western military experts, the interface between the
Azerbaijani and Israeli energy and military spheres offers Jerusalem
a strategic pathway to the Caspian region under Iran's nose, as well
a lucrative source of revenue for its arms industry for years go come.