A great article by Noam Chomsky in today’s Guardian arguing that “Washington’s escalation of threats against Iran is driven by a determination to secure control of the region’s energy resources.”
For the US, writes Chomsky, “the primary issue in the Middle East has been, and remains, effective control of its unparalleled energy resources. Access is a secondary matter. Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere. Control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance”.
“Iranian influence in the ‘crescent’ challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the world’s major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washington’s worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the world’s oil and independent of the US”.
Article cited: Noam Chomsky, “A Predator Becomes More Dangerous When Wounded”, The Guardian, March 9, 2007 only available online for 24 hours here