OPEC chief: I am 100 percent against Iran oil sanctions
OPEC chief Abdullah El-Badri spoke out against looming new oil sanctions against Iran at the start of a two-day oil conference in Vienna on Wednesday, AFP reported.
“I don’t want to see any of my member countries under embargo,” El-Badri told oil representatives and ministers as the European Union is preparing to enforce an oil embargo against Iran from July 1.
“I am really against this 100 percent,” he added.
Iran has come under unprecedented Western sanctions for its nuclear program. As a signatory to the non-proliferation regime Iran has right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
“Iran is a founder member, it has a great ability to produce oil”, the OPEC secretary-general told journalists later.
“So I hope that this embargo will be lifted somehow, by discussion and by... peaceful solutions.”
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez also rejected the sanctions.
“We denounce the embargo again Iran,” he told reporters, AFP reported.
“The EU cannot promote a dialogue with (oil) producers and on the other hand impose sanctions.”
“The sanctions aren’t good for anyone. Restricting access to oil resources and those who have them only complicates the situation at a time when the EU’s economic position is perilous.”