Azernews.Az

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that Iran will never give up its efforts to assume the presidency of OPEC.

Earlier, Zanganeh said that considering the fact that some Arab countries vetoed Iran's presidency on previous occasions, Tehran should also use its veto power in case one of the mentioned countries is elected as the new chairman of the cartel.

Now after becoming Iran's oil minister, Zanganeh still believes that Iran should defend its right to become OPEC's head.

"Being elected as OPEC's secretary general is not that important, but Iran will not let other countries abuse its rights," he explained.

He further said that Iran will not let countries who abuse Tehran's rights become OPEC's secretary general.

The election to pick OPEC's secretary general is scheduled to be held in Vienna on December 4, with Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia vying for the post.

Hossein Amiri Khamkani, a member of the Economic Committee of Iran's Majlis said in July that Iran is among the countries which since the beginning of OPEC's activity, has had an effective presence in the organisation and enjoys a high level of expertise and experience compared to other members of the organisation. So the chances are high for the Islamic Republic to assume the presidency of OPEC.

"If Iran assumes the position of secretary general of OPEC, it will definitely be influential in numerous decisions made by the organisation and also in determining the level of production as well as exports and imports of oil in the world," the Iranian lawmaker noted, Press TV reported.

OPEC is a Vienna-based intergovernmental organisation of 12 oil-producing countries which comprise Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.