The
currently stateless Kurds sit astride the Iraq-Syria border on land
blessed/cursed with oil, other resources, and geopolitical
significance. Is it any wonder that mega-corporations and their
client states are looking to use the Kurds, stoke conflict, and
exploit the situation?
by
Whitney Webb
Part
5 - Why the sudden change of heart?
ExxonMobil
once again emerges as a key player — not surprisingly, given that
current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon’s CEO when the
unilateral contract with the Kurds was forged. Tillerson, however, is
not the only former ExxonMobil employee with ties to the Trump
administration. Ali Khedery — a former Pentagon official who served
in the U.S. coalition authority in Iraq, and a former ExxonMobil
executive — has repeatedly promoted the division of Iraq.
Khedery
is also the founder of Dragoman Ventures, a firm connected to the
Committee to Destroy ISIS, which has been instrumental in bringing
about the Trump administration’s change of opinion regarding Iraq’s
partition. The Committee’s executive director, Sam Patten, also
shares deep connections to members of Trump’s campaign and
transition teams, as well as to certain Iraqi oligarchs suspected of
having ties to U.S. intelligence and insurgent elements in Iraq.
Nor
is oil the only resource that has swayed the Trump administration and
its corporate allies to view partition favorably. Iraq’s Anbar
province was recently found to contain nearly a tenth of the world’s
total deposits of phosphates, a key ingredient in the production of
nitrogen fertilizer. Now — with control of more than 70 percent of
the world’s phosphate supply, and with markets reaching a point
where demand is beginning to outstrip supply — the world’s
largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer is eager for access to Anbar
province.
That
company, Koch Fertilizer Inc., is owned by the infamous Koch
Brothers. Fully one-third of Trump’s entire transition team had
ties to Koch Industries.
Source,
links:
http://www.mintpressnews.com/geopolitics-corporate-profits-push-iraq-syria-towards-partition/230830/
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