Keep your eye on 'Pipelineistan'.

Keep your eye on 'Pipelineistan'. HT: RussiaToday.

By now the different, sometimes converging, agendas of all those who want war on Syria are crystal clear. Essentially, it’s ‘the road to Damascus ends up in Tehran’.

The War Party in Washington, Israel and the House of Saud all know that new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s success depends on easing the sanctions and revitalizing the Iranian economy. Tomahawks falling over Syria will virtually obliterate his push for a civilized dialogue between Iran and the US; the ultra-conservatives in Tehran will inevitably regain the upper hand.

So the Obama doctrine, on purpose, is also about bombing any possibility of meaningful dialogue with Tehran. The proof is that Obama eagerly listens to rabid Israeli-firsters such as Dennis Ross, now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) think tank. Ross argues that bombing will reinforce the US’s “credibility” – as in threatening to go medieval further on down the road to prevent Iran from acquiring those evil, non-existent nuclear weapons.

And then, of course, there’s Pipelineistan – the elephant in the Syria frenzy room. There’s a lot of natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean near the Syrian and Lebanese shorelines – arguably 90 percent more than in Israel. So Syria is a great prize in itself – on the road to become a natural gas competitor to Qatar.

Add to it the possibility of completion – post-war – of the $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline. Privileged customers: Western Europe. Soon Qatar was being blocked on two fronts; by the House of Saud (who vetoed a pipeline traversing Saudi Arabia) and by the pipeline traversing Syria.

Thus the alliance with the US (and a privileged partnership with Exxon-Mobil), dependent on destroying any moves towards an Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline, to the benefit of a Qatar-Syria-Turkey pipeline feeding European natural gas customers. For the US, there’s the extra incentive that such a pipeline would dent Gazprom’s hold over the European gas market.

None of that, of course, will be discussed at the G20; the Obama doctrine won’t allow it. Quite predictable, when international relations are prey to a hubristic superpower that still answers geopolitical challenges with gunboat diplomacy.

Related: NATO’s Energy Security Strategy: Break Russia’s control over European gas markets.

Is The United States Going To Go To War With Syria Over A Natural Gas Pipeline?