OPEC blunder reveals Saudi-Iran disagreement on dollar
Agence France-Presse – 17 November, 2007
www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=358628&news_type=Economy&lang=en

A blunder by OPEC on Friday exposed a disagreement between Saudi Arabia and
Iran about the falling dollar when a private meeting of ministers was
broadcast to journalists by mistake.

In an embarrassing oversight, the private meeting of foreign, finance and
oil ministers from the 12 members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries was broadcast for 30 minutes on closed-circuit television in the
media room.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in a written proposal that a
final declaration by OPEC leaders, who arrive here Saturday for a two-day
summit, should express concern by member states over the fall of the US
dollar.

Reacting to the request, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal Saudi
Arabia’s foreign minister warned that mentioning the falling dollar could
lead to the “collapse” of the US currency.

“There are media people outside waiting to catch this point and they will
add to it (exaggerate) and we may find that the dollar collapses,” he said.

Member states should express concern over “the continued depreciation of the
US dollar” in the final declaration, Mottaki said.

US foe Iran was joined in its attempt to put the falling dollar on the
agenda by another of Washington’s antagonisers, Venezuela.

Prince Saud, who was chairing the meeting, described the Iranian proposal as
“sensitive.”

“This is a sensitive issue. It will cause the dollar to drop further, thus
complicating the problems we are facing from the dollar’s fall,” Prince Saud
said.

The fall of the US dollar, which has declined by about 15 percent in 12
months, has affected the revenues of OPEC members because most of them price
and sell their oil exports in the US currency.

The remarkable insight into the inner workings of the Organisation of
Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces 40 percent of world oil, ended
when an official emerged to switch off the television.

Ironically, Iran has moved away from the dollar and now prices nearly all of
its exports in local currency, meaning most of its revenues are in euros and
yen, a source in the Iranian delegation told AFP earlier.

He said that this had saved the country about 10 billion dollars (14 billion
euros) this year.

He also said that OPEC was unlikely to make a statement on the dollar
because the organisation believed the issue of pricing oil was a sovereign
issue that should be dealt with individually by members.

The summit, which begins on Saturday, is only the third gathering of OPEC
head of states in the organisation’s 47-year history.

The 12-member organisation, dominated by US ally Saudi Arabia, produces
about 40 percent of world oil and attempts to regulate production of its
members through a quota system.

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