See also

Iran, Iraq sign oil pipeline deal

Iran and Iraq signed an agreement to build pipelines for the transfer of Iraqi crude oil and oil products, the state-run Iran News Network said on Saturday quoting the Oil Ministry.

The 32-inch (81-centimetre) pipeline will bring crude from the southern Iraqi port of Basra to the southwestern Iranian port of Abadan. There will be a separately 16-inch one for oil products.

Under the deal, Iran would buy 100,000 barrels of Iraqi crude to be refined in the southern port of Bandar Abbas, then sell the product back to Iraq. The accord would have no upper limit on quantities.

... In August 2006, Tehran and Baghdad signed a memorandum of understanding for Iran to refine 100,000 barrels per day of Iraqi crude in return for two million litres per day of refined products.

And see also this op-ed in the LA Times for a look at how the press is falling neatly into line, with qualifications.

Here’s the thesis:

The Iranians are riding high these days. While the United States is hemorrhaging $5 billion a month in Iraq trying to stabilize Iran’s flattened former enemy, Tehran is hauling in $5 billion a month in oil revenues. Iran is making life miserable for the United States in Iraq by allowing weapons to flow to Shiite fighters who are attacking U.S. troops there, if it isn’t arming and training the insurgents itself. And Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite who lived in exile in Iran, held hands with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week during a chummy visit to Tehran, to the annoyance of President Bush.

Meanwhile, Iran’s centrifuges are probably spinning away, enriching uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons. Although Russia has taken the welcome step of refusing to deliver fuel to Iran’s Bushehr civilian nuclear reactor, countries with commercial interests in Iran continue to balk at imposing U.N. Security Council economic sanctions with teeth. People who have met unofficially with senior Iranians recently describe them as self-confident, even cocky, and uninterested in bettering relations with the U.S.

And some friendly advice:

The U.S. must push back against Iranian provocations in Iraq and elsewhere. But it must also be mindful of the unintended consequences of escalation.Battling Iranian operatives inside Iraq is necessary but could lead to clashes on the Iranian-Iraqi border or in the Persian Gulf. As the Iranians proved by their capture and mistreatment of British sailors earlier this year, things could easily get even nastier.

Iran is making life miserable for the United States in Iraq by allowing weapons to flow to Shiite fighters who are attacking U.S. troops there

I love how whenever this theory is advanced whoever advances it fails to mention how it is in Iran’s best interests to have a country in a constant state of (internal) war and unrest as their neighbor. That is on top of never explaining how it serves Iran to have the U.S. all up in arms (which raises the risk of a U.S. attack on Iran) over something done by the Iranian government (something which never actually seems to benefit Iran)

Double spot light for this baby, Curious George wishes to imply that if the Iranian people just accepted the will of the Drunken Capitalists into their bosom they too could realize their economic potential.

Fancy saying something like that hot on the heels of a global stock market crash highlighting the full meaning of “economic potential” in the context of US fiscal planning.

That’s just too astounding for words. Whatever were his speechwriters thinking? I wonder if they have a software application pumping out the pat answers and someone just forgot to reference current events. Just this one time.

Don’t miss the picture ABC Australia used with the above post :

“You don’t want the picture to be kind of, you know, duking it out,” he said, putting up his fists like a boxer.

What a jackass.