Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor
A friend once observed that the Iranians are a smart people: They read history and study maps. These days, they're diligently studying maps of the East Mediterranean's oil and gas resources, and planning to "help" Lebanon explore for it.
So they say. What they mean is to help Lebanon militarily, under the guise of helping with oil and exploration in the region—mostly smack up against Lebanon's ill-defined maritime border with Israel.
Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, made that clear, saying the conflict between Lebanon and Israel over their maritime border and gas and oil reserves demands study by "impartial experts."
Roknabadi did not mean ExxonMobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, or BP PLC. Nope, his impartial experts hale from Tehran. "We have strong and capable companies exploring oil and have said that we are able and willing to cooperate with Lebanon in this respect."
'A brotherly country'
Roknabadi's comments followed his meeting with Lebanon's Energy Minister Jibran Basil in Beirut, where they discussed contracts signed by their respective energy ministries regarding energy, power, dams, water, and oil.
"Iran has acquired self-reliance in most sectors, including scientific, technological, and industrial. We would want to equip a brotherly country like Lebanon with such facilities," Roknabadi said.
If that sounds like help, think again. Recalling that Iran has just acquired the services of a Revolutionary Guard as its minister of oil, the idea of sending Lebanon any such help sounds more like a military mission.
Proof of that came recently when a senior Iranian official announced that a large number of Kurdish fighters had been killed or arrested in the recent attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the group's HQ.
IRGC attacks PJAK
West Azerbaijan province's Gov.-Gen. Vahid Jalalzadeh made the remarks, adding that the aim of IGRC's military operations against Partiya Jiyana Azada Kurdistane (PJAK) is "to defend Iran's territorial integrity."
That, of course brings us back to maps and the hotly contested Israeli-Lebanese maritime border. It all comes down to the gas that Israel recently discovered offshore.
Lebanon wants its share and is prepared to threaten Israel with help from Iran—the E&P wing of the Revolutionary Guards. The trouble is, when the Iranian oil minister sends that help, it will be, and be seen as, a provocation.
It's a little like those Soviet trawlers that used to monitor activities along the US East Coast in the guise of catching cod. One never knows quite how many cod they ever caught, but they certainly raised a lot of concern in Washington, DC.
That's just what Iran's offer is raising right now in Tel Aviv.
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