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France & Russia warned support US war on Iraq or no Iraqi oil

Kirk | 07.02.2003 17:57

 http://www.oilandgasinternational.com/departments/world_industry_news/jan03_france.html

France & Russia warned support US war on Iraq or no Iraqi oil

France and Russia have been warned they must support the US military invasion and occupation of Iraq if they want acess to Iraqi oilfields in a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. According to a report in today's Tehran Times, US Senator Richard Lugar, a leading member of the Bush administration and Republican Party chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Russia and France "must be ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in any US-led military intervention" if they want a share of Iraqi oil.
The paper quoted Lugar as saying that Paris and Moscow oil companies will be deprived of Iraqi oil and have no share in the country's resources if they refuse to join in the US war to oust Hussein. It noted that both the Russian Duma and the French parliament have both expressed opposition to a US military attack on Iraq.

Kirk

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Blair: This oil conspiracy theory is absurd

08.02.2003 02:01

From yesterday's interview with BBC Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman:

TONY BLAIR: No, let me just deal with the oil thing because this is one of the... we may be right or we may be wrong, I mean people have their different views about why we're doing this thing.

But the oil conspiracy theory is honestly one of the most absurd when you analyse it."

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/2732979.stm

Mr Blair you have some serious credibility problems!

fd

another angle

09.02.2003 21:14

I have been told about this, not read it for myself: according to the financial times on the 30th jan, the reason French and Russian governments are refusing to back a second UN resolution is because the US is refusing to guarantee them access to Iraqi oil. In fact they have oil contracts agreed with the Iraqi's should there not be a war. Whether or not Blair gets his precious second resolution hangs on the parties coming to an understanding about how they divide up the spoils. Lugar may be making a threat, but at the same time he implies the possibility of agreement being made. The issue of weapons inspections is simply a smokescreen concealing the business in hand.

frill