by Sylvie Lanteaume
24-05-06
The United States, eager to find new sources of
oil at the time when petroleum prices are skyrocketing, is increasingly giving
up its strategy of promoting democracy, analysts say.
The US government of President George W. Bush has recently made contradictory
moves towards key foreign oil producers, sowing confusion about its policy
goals, according to Frank Verrastro, of the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
If the democracy and support for humans right are the main engine of US
diplomacy, "then you have to wonder why we have not taken a tougher line with
Russia, why we have not taken a tougher line with Kazakhstan, why we have not
taken a tougher line with Libya?" he asked.
Yet US officials "use it when we talk about Venezuela, and we use it when we
talk about the Middle East," said Verrastro, an expert in energy policy.
"Increasingly it is looking like a case by case application of what is more
important," he said."It is depending on what the perceived needs of the day
are."
Washington announced on May 15 it was normalizing relations with Libya, which
has important crude oil reserves, despite the lack of political reforms visible
in a country led since 1969 by the same man, Muammar Gaddafi. On the same day US
officials imposed sanctions on Venezuela, a country that supplies 15 % of US oil
imports. The stated reason: populist President Hugo Chavez's lack of cooperation
in the US-led "war on terror".
Washington also charged Chavez's government with restricting the freedom of the
press and harassing his political opponents. One day later US officials
suspended free trade negotiations with Ecuador, another important oil supplier,
after Quito cancelled its contract with US-based Occidental Petroleum and took
over their assets.
On May 4 US Vice President Dick Cheney took a swipe at Russia over democratic
reform, accusing Moscow of "improperly restricting" human rights and using oil
and gas supplies as a weapon.
"No legitimate cause is served when oil and gas become tools of manipulation or
blackmail," Cheney said, referring to the cut-off of gas supplies to Ukraine
last January which also affected parts of Europe. Yet just hours later Cheney
was praising the authoritarian government of Kazakhstan for its "economic
development and political development".
Since 1993, the US has invested about $ 12 bn (EUR 9.42 bn) in Kazakhstan,
which has oil reserves of 24 bn barrels, making the US the biggest single
investor in the country. The Bush administration claims it is pursuing a
coherent energy policy, but recognizes that oil producing countries are
politically profiting from the high price of crude.
"You have the bulk of the world hydrocarbons resources owned by state owned oil
companies. And they are feeling very powerful now, as we saw in Ecuador and
Russia and Venezuela," said a US State Department energy expert.
However, Washington has not given up defending the democracy.
"We have principles," the official said, pointing to Libya, which had to meet
strict guidelines to be withdrawn from the US list of state sponsors of
terrorism.
"The evidence would suggest that America has put ... our values above the
mercantilist energy issues," the official said.
Richard Haass, president of Council on Foreign Relations, another
Washington-based think tank, disagreed.
"Today's situation may lack drama in the sense that there has been no successful
terrorist attack on some tanker or refinery," Haas wrote. "But current energy
policy (or the lack of one) empowers some of the most repressive and reckless
regimes in the world, further impoverishes hundreds of millions of the world's
poor and contributes to global climate change."
Source: www.middle-east-online.com