THE US and China, which are currently in a state not unlike the Cold War, may end up in a confrontation over the energy resources of the Caspian Sea area and Central Asia.Worryingly for some, this confrontation could take place in the land of the Baloch comprised of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan and some of Afghanistan’s southern provinces.This factor enhances the strategic importance of Baloch land. The resolution tabled in the US Congress by Dana Rohrabacher in February this year said that the Baloch that are “currently divided between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have the right to self-determination and to their own sovereign country”. The resolution has floated the idea of a ‘greater Balochistan’. The US has been raising the issue of human rights violations in the restive provinces of Pakistan, Iran and China. And those involved in separatist movements in these geo-strategically important ‘energy nodes’ would be the key players in a power struggle for the control of the region’s vast oil and gas reserves.
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