State Dept. Hypocrisy on Iran's Fuel Row With Afghanistan
This is pretty rich. Iran, a country under economic sanctions by international bodies, the West, and, particularly, the U.S., has reportedly been stymying gas trucks crossing its border into war-ravaged Afghanistan. That country, of course, is consumed at the moment by a war between insurgents and an army from the West (NATO) and, pointedly, the U.S.
Just a week after an Iranian plan crashed, killing scores, which was quite possibly caused by the deterioration of Iranian commercial planes due to sanctions restricting spare parts, the U.S. is speaking about the right of every country to have access to energy. This comes while Congress and the Obama administration have put into place sanctions that specifically target Iranian access to refined gas. Do you see the irony?
Here’s State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley — who has more or less said in the past that the sanctions packages are a means to put pressure on Iranians as a collective, not just the leadership — responding to a question at a daily briefing in Washington:
QUESTION: Some kind of economic tension is brewing up between Afghanistan and Iran. Iran has blocked the supply of gas to Afghanistan, which has led to increasing gas prices and shortages of gas in Afghanistan. What do you have to say about that – on that?
MR. CROWLEY: I mean, we are watching closely that development. Energy is a critical resource to any country and any economy, and it should be available at whatever the appropriate market price is.
Want to qualify that statement now to say that gas should only be available to those countries that the U.S. believes deserve it?
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