Unocal in Afghanistan - Current - Zalmay Khalilzad appointed US Special Envoy to Afghanistan - Brief Article

New Internationalist, April, 2002

Former consultant to oil giant Unocal Corporation and pro-Taliban lobbyist, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been made the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan. The highest-ranking US diplomat in the country, he represents US government interests to the emerging Afghani Government. Khalilzad has a long history of promoting pro-military action during the presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W Bush.

Khalilzad's historic support for the Taliban does not appear to have been an obstacle to his appointment. While working on Unocal's project beginning in 1997, Khalilzad participated in talks with the Taliban on oil and gas pipeline infrastructure through the country, attended a delegation of Taliban leaders visiting Texas, and called for US support far their regime.

In 1997 Khalilzad conducted risk assessments for Unocal on their proposed 1,500-kilometre pipeline project to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghanistan while he was a consultant with Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

In 1998, after the US retaliated for the attacks on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by bombing Afghanistan, Unocal suspended all public negotiations for trans-Afghanistan pipelines, stating it would only participate in a Centgas pipeline project 'when and if' Afghanistan achieved the 'peace and stability necessary to obtain financing from international agencies and a government that is recognized by the US and the United Nations'.

Drillbits and Tailings, Vol 7 #1, 2002