Feb. 16 - Only weeks before Halliburton made headlines by announcing it was pulling out of Iran--a nation George W. Bush has labeled part of the "axis of evil"--the Texas-based oil services firm quietly signed a major new business deal to help develop Tehran's natural gas fields.
Halliburton's new Iran contract, moreover, appears to suggest a far closer connection with the country's hard-line government than the firm has ever acknowledged.
The deal, diplomatic sources tell NEWSWEEK, was signed with an Iranian oil company whose principals include Sirus Naseri, Tehran's chief international negotiator on matters relating to the country's hotly-disputed nuclear enrichment program--a project the Bush administration has charged is intended to develop nuclear weapons.
