17 June 2008

iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad: oil prices "fake and imposed"

iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad
opening the opec fund for international development
isfahan, iran, 17 june 2008
video

reuters excerpt:
"At a time when the growth of consumption is lower than the growth of production and the market is full of oil, prices are rising and this trend is completely fake and imposed," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech.

"It is very clear that visible and invisible hands are controlling prices in a fake way with political and economic aims," he said when opening a meeting of the OPEC Fund for International Development in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, has repeatedly said the market is well-supplied with crude and blames rising prices on speculation, a weak U.S. currency and geopolitical factors.

"As you know the decrease in the dollar's value and the increase in energy prices are two sides of the same coin which are being introduced as factors behind the recent instability," Ahmadinejad said.

Oil steadied on Tuesday after touching a record near $140 the previous day
[...]
"The ever-increasing decrease in the dollar's value is one of the world's major problems,"
Ahmadinejad said. ~ read more