Ivanov suggested that the invasion of Afghanistan might have
been partly motivated Western companies seeking to exploit Central Asian energy
resources. "If we look back before the invasion, starting in 1997, a number of
American companies were negotiating with the Taliban about putting in a
pipeline in Afghanistan ... bringing gas from Turkmenistan south toward India.
There were negotiations in Kabul and Houston and Washington. In 2001, those
negotiations ended in a deadlock because the American side wanted a bigger
pipeline, while the Taliban wanted smaller pipes in order to provide smaller
towns and villages with gas. From the American side, the negotiator was Unocal
and the negotiator from that company was the employee of that company, Hamid
Karzai."