A former Iranian president in Saudi Arabia is in the news. I wonder what the significance of this is if any.
Gulf countries worried about oil price fall
Copyright c 1998 Nando.net
Copyright c 1998 Reuters News Service
DUBAI (February 24, 1998 2:06 p.m. EST
nando.net) - Former Iranian President Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Tuesday that Iran and
Saudi Arabia were working together to try to prevent
oil prices from sliding further.
"It gives us pleasure to say that there is coordination
between the two countries and ministers and officials
are doing their best to maintain the prices as they
were decided by OPEC," Rafsanjani told a news
conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
"Our ministers are still busy with this subject and will
announce what they have reached later," he said.
Rafsanjani, who now heads Iran's powerful
Expediency Council, is on a 10-day visit to Saudi
Arabia accompanied by Oil Minister Bijan Namdar
Zanganeh. He concluded his official visit on Tuesday
but was staying to perform a religious pilgrimage.
Saudi Arabia and Iran, both members of the
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries,
are among the world's top oil producing nations.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tehran radio quoted Rafsanjani
as saying at talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince
Saud al-Faisal that OPEC needed to set serious
rules to deal with members who violate their oil
production quotas.
"OPEC members should make firm and practical
decisions and set up more serious regulations to
deal with countries which do not comply with their set
quotas and all members should see it as their
responsibility to follow OPEC principles and
regulations," the radio quoted Rafsanjani as saying.
It said the Saudi official told Rafsanjani his country
was ready to cooperate with the Islamic republic
towards preventing a fall in oil prices and reaching
joint OPEC decisions on this issue.
Oil prices have dropped to four-year lows after the
11-member OPEC decided in November to raise oil
output by 10 percent to 27.5 million barrels per day
(bpd).
Asia's financial crisis, a relatively warm winter in the
northern hemisphere and the return of Iraqi oil exports
under a U.N. oil-for-food deal have also contributed
to the oil slump.
Rafsanjani said his talks with Saudi officials also
dealt with ways of ensuring security and stability in
the Gulf and efforts to bolster cooperation between
the two countries.
Iranian-Saudi relations, which took a downturn after
the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western
shah, reached their lowest ebb in 1987 when 400
pilgrims, mostly Iranians, were killed in riots during
the annual pilgrimage.
But ties began to improve after Iran took a neutral
stand over Iraq's 1990 occupation of Kuwait and the
subsequent U.S.-led Gulf War.
Charles
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