In the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, a long line of broken mud cuts across the meadows. If you go anywhere near it, camouflaged guards carrying automatic weapons emerge from the forest beyond.
These guards in the Borjomi region of Georgia -- trained by US Army and SAS (British special forces) veterans -- are pawns in a new great game gripping Central Asia: their job is to protect the oil pipeline buried 3m below.
"A terrorist attack is the greatest threat we face," said the guards' commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Giorgi Pantskhava, an energetic Georgian in desert fatigues and aviator shades.
The US$4 billion BTC -- Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan -- pipeline went on stream yesterday. It is key in US plans to reduce dependency on OPEC oil producers in the turbulent Middle East. Pumping oil 1,609km from the Caspian sea to the Mediterranean through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, it will avoid Russia -- increasingly seen by the US as a resurgent superpower prepared to use control of energy resources as a political weapon.
The pipeline -- 70 percent funded by the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and export credit agencies -- took three years to build and will carry up to 1 million barrels of oil a day to Western markets. Yet its position on the faultline between Russia and its estranged former Soviet neighbors makes it a shaky bet.
The fiercely pro-Washington government of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili welcomed the BTC with open arms, said transit payments would help to kick-start the economy of the faltering ex-Soviet state.
Yet the pipeline, constructed and run by a BP-led consortium, has opened in the teeth of bitter opposition.
Green campaigners said the route passes too near to Georgia's Borjomi Gorge, a tourist spot with mineral water springs and abundant wildlife.
"If there is even a minor oil leak here then the reputation of the area will be irreparably damaged," said Vano Shalutashvili, of the Borjomi People's Democracy Institute, an organization that has fought for the pipeline to be diverted.
A leak on one section was detected in a test run this month.
Critics also said BTC passes too close to volatile breakaway regions in both Georgia and Azerbaijan, making it vulnerable to sabotage that could cause a catastrophic spill.
Locals are also furious with BP, claiming a host of problems from houses damaged by heavy traffic to polluted springs.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of