By NNN-FNA,
Tehran : Iran officially announced replacement of its long-time governor to the 13-member oil exporting cartel, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Oil Ministry’s website Shana said on Sunday that Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari appointed Mohammad Ali Khatibi, previously deputy director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company, to the post in a decree replacing Hossein Kazempour Ardebili.
“In view of your commitment and experience in issues related to OPEC and global oil markets, you are appointed as the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the governing board of OPEC,” Nozari wrote to Khatibi, according to Shana.
In a separate letter, he thanked Kazempour Ardebili for his work. The Shana report did not say why Kazempour Ardebili was replaced.
Kazempour Ardebili served as Iran’s deputy foreign minister and deputy oil minister in the 1980s and was Iranian ambassador to Japan in the early 1990s, while at the same time serving as OPEC governor.
Khatibi has also previously worked at the Oil Ministry’s department of OPEC and Energy Affairs and as a researcher at the Tehran-based Institute of International Energy Studies.
Iran is OPEC’s No. 2 and the world’s fourth-largest exporter of oil.
Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told FNA on Sunday that he did not see the need for an emergency meeting of OPEC and expected crude prices to rise with any weakening in the US dollar.
Iran and other OPEC states have often said in recent weeks that there is no lack of supply and have blamed the crude price surge on factors such as the weak US dollar and speculation.
Iran is embroiled in a long-running standoff with the US-led West over its nuclear program. The dispute has played a part in oil’s rise to a record near $128 on Friday.
Market analysts take the Bush administration responsible for the price hikes caused by Iran concerns, saying that it is the “rumors of US military action against Iran circulating in the markets” that affected oil and the dollar.
The United States and its Western allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Iran has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Iran is under three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West’s illegitimate calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.
Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, and says it will only negotiate with the UN nuclear watchdog.
Iran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed after it answered the UN agency’s questions about the history of its nuclear program.