“Russia teaches Georgia a hard lesson”

Swiss lend support to southern Caucasus Three days after attempting to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Georgia has notified Russia of its withdrawal from the conflict zone.
Swiss expert on the Caucasus Jeronim Perovic told swissinfo that Russia wanted to demonstrate that it was in control in the region. He said Switzerland should play a role after peace is restored.

Russia poured troops and tanks across its southern border into Georgia and bombed Georgian targets after Tbilisi attempted on Thursday evening to retake South Ossetia, a small pro-Russian province.

The rapidly escalating crisis alarmed the United States, Georgia’s main ally and brought condemnation from the UN, Nato, and EU leaders.

“Russia has not only retaken South Ossetia – its protectorate inhabited by its citizens – but is also making Georgia pay by bombing Georgian territory. This is to teach them a very hard lesson on who is the master in this region,” Perovic said.

“It is also a signal to the US and other countries who is in charge in this region,” the senior researcher at Basel University added. Georgia has now expressed its readiness to start negotiations with its northern neighbour while Russia has also declared itself ready to make peace.

High cost
Perovic predicted that Georgia’s latest attempt to take control of South Ossetia would ultimately cost it this region and the other separatist region to the west, Abkhazia.

“By trying to reintegrate South Ossetia by force, Mikhail Saakashvili Georgian president will most likely lose these two territories once and for all.”

The domination of South Ossetia has been a long-standing goal of the Georgian president, according to Perovic. “Saakashvili declared when he became president in 2004 that his aim was to re-establish territorial integrity of the country.”

Switzerland should play a role in the post-conflict negotiations, as it is still highly regarded as a neutral nation by both ex-Soviet countries, Perovic suggested.

“Now is not the time for Switzerland to intervene but once the war is over and people have to sit together and talk Switzerland should try to offer a framework or a place for these parties to meet.”

The Swiss military observers and police advisors who are currently based in Georgia will remain in their posts. There is one Swiss stationed on each side of the Georgian-Abkhaz border where hostilities also flared up on Sunday.

In all six Swiss are stationed in Georgia under the command of the UN, but two are currently out of the country on leave. The UN mission for Georgia (UNOMIG) has been in place since 1993 with a force of 400.

Civilians at risk
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres expressed grave concern on Sunday over the plight of thousands of civilians caught up in fighting in and around South Ossetia, a region of 70,000 people.

“It is essential that humanitarian agencies be able to reach the affected and the displaced, and that those trapped in conflict areas be granted passage to safer areas as soon as possible,” he said in a statement.

Russia’s response to the Georgian move has been swift and wide reaching. The Russian navy also entered the conflict, deploying a small group of ships off Georgia’s Black Sea coast. The Russian Interfax news agency said they would prevent weapons and military equipment reaching Georgia by sea.

“It’s not that Russia was looking for a pretext to do this,” Perovic observed. “They were surprised by Georgia starting a full-scale aggression in South Ossetia but now they want to finish their mission.”

swissinfo

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Israel and the US behind the Georgian aggression?

There is an obvious Israeli involvement in the present conflict between Georgia and Russia. There are hundreds of Israeli military advisers in Georgia and this is not just the claim of the rather unreliable DebkaFile but also the more respected Ha’aretz expert Yossi Melman, the daily Ma’ariv and also the rather reliable website “News First Class” (NFC).

Melman wrote on 25.6.2008 that Georgia became a real El Dorado for Israeli arms dealers and numerous representatives of the army and intelligence services. Some former generals like Israel Ziv and Gal Hirsh (with his company Defensive Shield) are very active there.

“Gal Hirsh and Israel Ziv are mainly training and consulting Georgian arm units. They are using the “chain” method common among Israeli arm dealers: a main contractor wins a tender and employs then sub-contractors – in this case Israeli officers and former Shin Beth employees,” wrote Melman.

According to him there was a project to sell Merkava tanks to Georgia, but allegedly the Israeli foreign ministry prevented the deal and a policy was outlined that only defensive weapons are allowed to be sold.

Just the same Russia protested agains the Israeli military support to Georgia after an Israeli produced UAV was shot down. On August 5 Israel reiterated its official policy that it allegedly sells only defensive and not offensive weapon systems to Georgia. This is the version published e.g. in the Jerusalem Post; other sources, like the Israeli daily Ma’ariv on 8.8, claim that Israel decided to stop altogether the military support to Georgia. Just the same Ma’ariv points out that the Georgian defense minister, David Kezerashvili, lived for a while in Israel and speaks Hebrew. In a lengthy article the military exports to Georgia are described. Ma’ariv estimates them to be of a value of at least USD 300 million. An Israeli marketing expert told Ma’ariv: “To every Israeli agent representing an Israeli defense company is attached a cousin of the defense minister, who opens the doors for him.”

Also NFC confirms the massive presence of Israeli advisers in Georgia and writes: “The Israeli military industries upgraded in recent years the Georgian air force, sold unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), advanced artillery systems and trained infantry units.” (9.8) The NFC claims that according to sources in Washington in Moscow the war started because Georgia wants to reverse Israel’s decision and achieve the continuation of the support. Israel, according to NFC, conceded to the Russian threatening that it would otherwise go through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system S-300 to Iran and Syria.

Actually the opposite conclusion is also possible, namely that Israel wants to pressure Russia not to sell the S-300 and stop its support to Iran.

The Israeli website DebkaFile, that is known to publish mainly conspiracy theories, believes that up to 1,000 Israeli advisors are active in planning and implementing the present Georgian military action (8.8). This conclusion sounds plausible.

Actually it has to be taken into consideration that also U.S. “consultants” are helping the Georgian army, as according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, there are 127 U.S. military trainers there, of whom about 35 are civilian contractors.

In addition to the trainers, 1,000 soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based Southern European Task Force (Airborne) and the Kaiserslautern-based 21st Theater Sustainment Command, along with Marine reservists with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Ohio, and the state of Georgia’s Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry participated in “Immediate Response 2008.”

Operation Immediate Response 2008 was held from July 15-July 30, with U.S. personnel training about 600 troops at a former Soviet base near Tbilisi, the largest city and capital of Georgia. The goal of this operation was allegedly teaching combat skills for missions in Iraq. The Marines left already the country, but not the airmen.

It is obvious that there are numerous Israeli and U.S. interests in Georgia and it is highly likely that they are behind the dangerous Georgian move.

www.creative-i.info/?p=318

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Israel`s Stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline

The following text on the militarisation of the Eastern Mediterranean was completed a few months before the Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The pipeline project linking Turkey to Israel originally proposed by Israel at the time was an underwater pipeline from the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan to the port of Haifa. Following the bombing of Lebanon, it is highly unlikely that such a costly project would be undertaken. What is at stake in the war on Lebanon is the strategic control of a land corridor, which extends along the Eastern Mediterranean coast,from the Israeli-Lebanese border, accross Lebanon and Syria to Turkey, where it would link up with the port of Ceyhan.

The Anglo-US Military alliance seeks to establish control over Central Asian oil and gas reserves as well as strategic pipeline routes. The most important strategic corridor is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and gas pipelines dominated by British Petroleum (BP). This corridor not only integrates the Caspian Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, it is also slated to channel Central Asian oil and gas to a strategic pipeline corridor controlled by Israel.

Israel has become a potential partner in the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is protected by GUAM, a US-NATO sponsored military alliance between Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Moldava. What is envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel’s Tipline, through a system of underwater pipelines, from Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Askshelon.

While the BTC pipeline is invariably described as a means of bypassing Russia and channelling Central Asian oil and gas to Western markets, part of this oil and gas is intended for re-export to the Asian market through the Red Sea port of Eilat. By linking the BTC to Israel’s pipeline system, Israel is slated to become a major player in the global energy market, in alliance with the Anglo-American oil giants.

Diverting Central Asian oil and gas to the Eastern Mediterranean (under Israeli military protection), for rexport to Asia, serves to undermine the inter-Asian energy market, which is based on the development of direct pipeline corridors linking Central Asia and Russia to South Asia, China and the Far East.

Route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelineFor details on th Campaign against the pipeline see http://www.bakuceyhan.org.uk/more_info/bp_pipeline.htmIn April, Israel and Turkey announced plans for four underwater pipelines. Also involved in this project is a pipeline to bring water to Israel. ’Turkey and Israel are negotiating the construction of a multi-million-dollar energy and water project that will transport water, electricity, natural gas and oil by pipelines to Israel, with the oil to be sent onward from Israel to the Far East, Antalya Mayor Menderes Turel” :.

“We are talking about a global energy project, which would be a very important engine of peace in the region,” Turel said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Turel, who was here to take part in an International Conference of Mayors held in Jerusalem, said that the grandiose project had received tentative approval from both Turkey and Israel and would greatly enhance an abrogated landmark 2004 proposal to export water to Israel using large tankers, which proved to be prohibitively expensive.

The new Turkish-Israeli proposal under discussion would see the transfer of water, electricity, natural gas and oil to Israel via four underwater pipelines.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite ?cid=1145961328841&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

According to Israeli Knesset member Joseph Shagal, the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline would eventually link up with Israeli ports and pipeline routes. In May 2006, Joseph Shagal confirmed that Israel was envisaging a new 400 km under water pipeline, which would join up with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main pipeline, “Baku oil can be transported to Ashkelon via this new pipeline and to India and the Far East.[via the Red sea]“

“Ceyhan and the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon are situated only 400 km apart. Oil can be transported to the city in tankers or via specially constructed under-water pipeline. From Ashkelon the oil can be pumped through already existing pipeline to port of Eilat at the Red Sea ; and from there it can be transported to India and other Asian countries in tankers. As Shagal informed, Natig Aliyev had invited Israeli Infrastructure Minister to visit traditional Caspian oil exhibition-conference to be held early in June in Baku. The member of Knesset expressed his assurance the invitation would be accepted and realization of the above-mentioned idea would be discussed in detail. REGNUM)

The Israeli-Turkish project, which links up with the BTC consists in exporting Caspian oil and gas using Israel as a transhipment route through the Red Sea back to to India and the Far East.

From a geopolitical standpoint, the Ceyhan-Ashkelon-Eilat corridor would be protected by the Israeli military. It would channel oil back to the Asian markets via the Red Sea. This dramatic rerouting of Central Asian oil and gas via the Eastern Mediterranean inevitably undermines the “direct corridor trading routes” between the producing countries in Central Asia and their South and East Asian trading partners, including India and China. Ultimately, this design is intended to weaken Russia’s role in Central Asia and cut off China from Central Asian oil resources. In this context, the Western military alliance which now includes Israel protects the strategic energy pipeline corridors of the Anglo-American oil companies.

The withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon bears a direct relationship to the consolidation of both land and sea corridors under Israeli military protection. The strategic land corridor extends from the Red Sea port of Eilat, across Israel and through Lebanon and the Syrian Mediterranean coastline to the Eastern coastline of Turkey.

The Eastern Mediterranean is also rich in gas reserves. According to a recent report :

“On the basis of preliminary drilling and seismographic results, Palestinian and Israeli waters in the Mediterranean appear to contain at least 100bn cu metres of gas reserves, divided about 60:40 in the Palestinians ’ favour. Almost all of this gas is expected to go to the Israeli market which, by 2015, will probably be consuming at least 12bn cu metres/yr. A small portion (about 0.5bn cu metres/yr) might also be reserved for a new power plant in the Gaza Strip.”

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/19835/19835.htm