Assistance in democracy building, for the development of NGOs, the development of independent media and international exchanges in all spheres will help move this agenda forward. The foregoing are just some of the policies I believe we should be pursuing in order to achieve our vital strategic, economic and political objectives in the region. Finally, I d like to re-iterate the point I made earlier about pipelines. Both Russian and Iranian rhetoric on this issue shows clearly that these countries see the connection between pipelines free of Russian and Iranian control and their domination over the region. And it is no coincidence that we are seeing an intense rapprochement between these two countries.
Time is of an essence here.
We have the opportunity to help these countries rebuild themselves from the ground up and to encourage them to continue their strong independent stances, especially in relation to Iran and the spread of extremist, anti-western fundamentalism, which is one of the most clear and present dangers facing the United States today. The window of opportunity has been closed even further by the recent investment by the French company Total, the Russian company Gazprom and the Malaysian company Petronas of over 2 billion dollars in the Iranian South Pars offshore gas field. It is vital that the Administration hold strong on implementing existing sanctions and on discouraging our allies from following the despicable example of Total. If the floodgates open through Iran, the eastern Caspian will certainly fall into the eastern sphere of dominance and the South Caucasus will lose out on its opportunity to prosper as producers of oil and as a pivotal transit point from East to West.