Iran Influences Oil Prices Through OPEC
 8/3/2011
- Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard becomes new president
of OPEC. Iran now has a crucial role in determining oil prices. Rostam
Ghasemi joins Ahmadinejad cabinet as oil minister, automatically making him
head of global oil organization while Iran is still targeted by
international sanctions
Rostam Ghasemi, head of the Khatam al-Anbia military and industrial base,
was one of four ministers nominated by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to join
his cabinetand approved by Iran's conservative-dominated
parliament.
Ghasemi is currently subject to US, EU and Australian sanctions and his
assets have been blacklisted by US Treasury and western powers. He took 216
votes from the 246 deputies present in the 290-seat parliament.
Iranian state media interpreted the vote as a reaction by Iran's parliament
to international sanctions against the country, especially those which have
targeted the revolutionary guards and the country's nuclear program.
"The clever and decisive vote of Iranian MPs for engineer Ghasemi to become
the oil minister is a meaningful and crucial response to the attacks against
the guards from the west's media empire," said Ramedan Sharif, the head of
the revolutionary guards public relations' unit, in quotes carried by Iran's
semi-official Fars news agency.
In a parliamentary debate before the vote, however, Ali Motahari, a
prominent conservative MP who has previously threatened to impeach
Ahmadinejad, spoke out against the involvement of the revolutionary guards
in Iran's politics.
"The integration of the guard, as a military force, in political and
economic power is not in the interests of the system," Motahari told the
parliament. "In neighboring countries, military officials are distancing
themselves from politics and power, while it's the opposite in Iran."
As its second-largest crude oil exporter, Iran took the presidency of Opec
after 36 years last October and Ghasemi's position will give the
revolutionary guards a unique opportunity to influence an international
organisation.
This article was published in
guardian.co.uk
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