Tuesday, May 24, 2011
(This story was originally published Monday.)
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Iran's Oil Ministry quashed reports that the country's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would attend the June meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to the official state news agency Irna Monday.
An Oil Ministry official told the agency that in a meeting between himself and Ahmadinejad, the president said he wouldn't attend the next OPEC meeting and would instead send a cabinet minister of his choice to attend both the OPEC gathering as well as the forthcoming joint meeting between OPEC and the European Union.
Speculation about Ahmadinejad's attendance at the OPEC meeting grew last week following remarks by the president that he would be caretaker head of the Oil Ministry after dismissing the incumbent ahead of a merger with the Energy Ministry. The remarks were given further credence after a top Iranian official last week confirmed that Ahmadinejad would attend OPEC's upcoming meeting.
Iran currently holds OPEC's rotating presidency, a position President Ahmadinejad would have had to assume had he decided to attend the June 8 OPEC meeting as the head of his country's Oil Ministry.
-By Reza Amanat, Dow Jones Newswires; 4420-7842-9487; reza.amanat@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
24-05-11 0351GMT
