September 20 2013
The Rohani Administration is replacing many officials chosen by the Ahmadi-nejad Administration—but it swears it is sticking with the nominee to be the new secretary general of OPEC.
That is Gholam-Hossain Nozari, who was the oil minister from 2007 to 2009 under Ahmadi-nejad and was nominated by Iran a year ago to head OPEC in Vienna.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar-Zanganeh said, “We will not allow any country to violate Iran’s right in OPEC as [we are] one of the founders and long-standing members of this organization.
“We will definitely not let those countries that are unfair to Iran gain the secretary general job,” he said.
Two other countries—Saudi Arabia and Iraq—have nominees for the post.
“If some of the OPEC members do not change their stance toward Iran and their policy stays like before, Iran will not back down either,” said Zanganeh.
Iran has nominated Nozari to replace Abdalla el-Badri, a former Libyan oil minister, whose two three-year terms in the job ended last December but who was asked to stay on for an extra year when the effort to choose a successor bogged down in the three-way fight.
Iraq has nominated former Oil Minister Thamer Ghadban, while Saudi Arabia has nominated its former OPEC governor, Majid al-Moneef.
Although the job is an administrative one, the appointment of a secretary general is highly political. Rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia has frequently resulted in stalemates that have eventually been resolved through negotiation and the appointment of a compromise candidate from outside the Persian Gulf.
Zanganeh has said he will pursue a policy of cooperation with fellow OPEC members. But his firm stand on Nozari sounded just like the previous administration, which talked about Iran’s “right” to hold the post of secretary general after decades with no Iranian in the position.
Zanganeh acknowledged that the drop in Iran’s production capacity has lessened Tehran’s leverage within OPEC. “Certainly, an increase in production and exports can improve Iran’s status in OPEC and raise its negotiating power,” he said.
