Parvez Jamil
WHEN hopes for a positive and peaceful solution to Azerbaijan-Armenia war hysteria dissipate, it all moves helplessly and horrendously from conflict resolution to conflict explosion.
Masood Abdali, an energy specialist and media columnist tweets from Houston about an attack on oil pipeline as Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia becomes highly volatile and explosive.
Azerbaijan reiterates that unless infiltrators from Armenia vacate Nagorno Karabakh, there will be no peace and war will continue between Azerbaijan and Armenia. On the contrary Armenia insists that Azerbaijan withdraws troops from this hot spot.
Armenian case seems to weaken as despite Armenian race majority living in Nagorno Karabakh, UN regards it as an integral part of Azerbaijan. On Tuesday, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev informed that Armenia launched a severe rocket attack on Baku-Tbilisi-Cehan (BTC) pipeline.
BTC is 1100 mile pipeline runs from Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli Oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Passing thru Georgia’s city of Tbilisi, it connects Baku to the Turkish port of Cehan for crude export.
Since Caspian Sea is a closed body of water, BP lead consortium has built this strategic oil pipeline in 2006. Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, US Oil giant Chevron, Conoco Philips, Italian Eni, French Total, Norwegian Statoil and Turkish National Oil Company TPAO are the major partners of TBC pipeline. TBC has maximum capacity on one million barrel and Azerbaijan exports over 0.6 million barrels per day thru this pipeline.
According or Azeri President, Armenia fired a Cluster Rocket in the vicinity of Yevlakh region of Azerbaijan that landed 10 meters away from the pipe-line. Spokesperson for Azer Presidency, Hikmet AHajivev, claimed that 300+ Cluster bomblets ejected from the rocket. It missed the pipeline but an Azeri citizen got killed due to explosion,
Local news papers reported that Azerbaijan took control of many Russian made M85 unexploded bombs allegedly fired from Cluster rocket. M85 bombs were included in the class of prohibited ammunition in line with the Convention of Cluster Ammunition (CCM).
TBC is the life line for Azeri economy and attack on this strategic national asset is not likely to be taken lightly. Use of prohibited weapon signals of its horrendous consequences and shakes the world conscience and intelligentsia appealing for peace and sanity.
After all, what is enshrined in the pacific settlement of disputes needs to be pondered in letter and spirit by world leadership, including that of the conflicting parties, with emotional maturity, serious purpose, will power and creative innovation to break ice in saving humankind from war and destruction and for international peace and security. The earlier better.
—The writer contributes to media on national and international affairs.
