Regional energy pacts expose systemic fragility as Iran leverages geopolitical leverage amid global oil market volatility
Original framing: “Exclusive: Iraq, Pakistan strike energy deals with Iran as Tehran flexes Hormuz control - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran and subsequent sanctions have created a century-long cycle of resource nationalism and external intervention. Colonial-era oil concessions in Iraq and Pakistan laid the groundwork for centralized, extractive energy systems. The 1979 oil crisis and Iran-Iraq War further entrenched fossil fuel dependencies, making regional energy systems brittle.
The energy deals between Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran are not merely geopolitical maneuvers but symptoms of a deeper systemic failure: a fossil fuel-dependent world order that prioritizes control over resilience. The U.S.
-led sanctions regime, dating back to 1953, has weaponized energy as a tool of coercion, while Western media frames resistance to this system as aggression rather than survival. Indigenous knowledge—from Kurdish solar innovators to Baloch water conservationists—offers a path beyond this impasse, yet is systematically excluded from policy discussions. The solution lies in reimagining energy as a communal right, not a state asset, and dismantling the colonial-era infrastructure that treats the Global South as an extractive periphery. This requires not just technical fixes but a cultural shift: from the trickster’s cunning in navigating sanctions to the Sufi’s ethos of shared abundance, the region’s future hinges on reclaiming agency over its resources.