'securing Iraq oil key factor', says Australian Defence Minister

July 5th, 2007 by BigFish_SmallPond

Australia 'has Iraq oil interest'

Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has admitted that securing oil supplies is a key factor behind the presence of Australian troops in Iraq.

He said maintaining "resource security" in the Middle East was a priority.

But PM John Howard has played down the comments, saying it was "stretching it a bit" to conclude that Australia's Iraq involvement was motivated by oil.

The remarks are causing heated debate as the US-led Iraq coalition has avoided linking the war and oil.

Oil concerns

Australia was involved in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has about 1,500 military personnel still deployed in the region.

There are no immediate plans to bring them home.

In comments to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mr Nelson admitted that the supply of oil had influenced Australia's strategic planning in the region.

"Obviously the Middle East itself, not only Iraq but the entire region, is an important supplier of energy, oil in particular, to the rest of the world," he said.

"Australians and all of us need to think what would happen if there were a premature withdrawal from Iraq.

"It's in our interests, our security interests, to make sure that we leave the Middle East, and leave Iraq in particular, in a position of sustainable security."

This is thought to be the first time the Australian government has admitted any link between troop deployment in Iraq and securing energy resources.

But Prime Minister John Howard was quick to play down the significance of his defence minister's comments.

"We didn't go there because of oil and we don't remain there because of oil," he told a local radio station.

"A lot of oil comes from the Middle East - we all know that - but the reason we remain there is that we want to give the people of Iraq a possibility of embracing democracy," he added.

Opposition criticism

Opposition politicians, though, have chastised Mr Howard's government over the comments.

"This government simply makes it up as it goes along on Iraq," Labor leader Kevin Rudd told reporters.

Anti-war protesters say the government's admission proves that the US-led invasion was more of a grab for oil rather than a genuine attempt to uncover weapons of mass destruction.

But ministers in Canberra have brushed aside the criticism, saying they remain committed to helping the US stabilise Iraq and combat terrorism.

They have also stressed that there will be no "premature withdrawal" of Australian forces from the region.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6272168.stm

Comments

The Same Sources ! First WMD , now OIL in Iraq !

Submitted on July 9th, 2007 by pacom

Would you be pleased to be informed that the same sources who told

Bush that there were WMD in Iraq , also told him

that there was also OIL there !

There is reason to believe that the Brits have already pumped

Iraq dry of most of the oil shown as "reserves."

RoW thE Gra V e L !

tannhauser PACOM , tanaiste

Oh yeah. I was not posting

Submitted on July 10th, 2007 by BigFish_SmallPond

Oh yeah. I was not posting the article as new information coming as a suprise to me. Just that someone spilled the beans. And not just anyone, but the Secretary of Defense of Australia.

How scary is it that CNN didn't mention this. I didn't even hear it on BBC World.

the bbc on Australia...

Submitted on July 6th, 2007 by jfl

This is the bbc on Australia, the junior partner in the Anglo-American-Australian Axis of Evil that began and sustains the ongoing war crime in the Middle East.

How about Tony Blair? How about George Bush?

Do you all read Asia Times Online? Check it out :

Iraq: A future perfect

Sensing a possible change in the balance of power in the Gulf as the coalition military forces leave Iraq, the Iranians secretly approach Saudi Arabia with a proposal to stabilize the political-economic conditions in the Persian Gulf – Caspian Sea oil fields. The core of the proposal calls for Riyadh and Tehran to pressure Baghdad diplomatically (and with the sectarian militias always in the background) to reject any form of a residual US military presence in Iraq. In return, both Iran and Saudi Arabia would assist the redevelopment of Iraq's oil sector, enabling the three countries to form a powerful sub-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries triumvirate.

Iraq, the new Israel

Lame-duck US President George W Bush, last week in a speech at the US Naval War College, made it official: Israel is the model for Iraq, although Iraq is rather more like Palestine. The endless Palestinian tragedy - the cancer at the root of every problem in the Middle East - now has officially spread to Mesopotamia. The disease is man-made. Not that the White House is losing any sleep over it. Bush may even have had a Nero-like impulse to add fuel to the burning of Rome, ie Baghdad: after all, the Zio-con objective is to encourage civil war in Iraq on a divide-and-rule basis.

Ever since the bbc was slapped down over the "dodgy dossier" and the suicide (or murder) of Dr. David Kelly it has been little better than the American MSM with its encomiums and apologies for the wars in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.

"stretching it a bit"

Submitted on July 5th, 2007 by alex

Gravel 08