Iran Press/Africa: 'Leveraging oil against the political will of the OPEC(Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) members here, as well as individuals, is something which cannot be accepted. Not by Iran only, but also by others', The Iranian representative at OPEC Hossein Kazempour Ardabili said.
'The Trump administration is pushing politics into the OPEC, and is aiming at spreading the members and securing their own interests by getting lower prices and so forth,' Kazempour Ardabili noted.
Trump said that the oil price is high and OPEC should decrease it, The Iranian representative at OPEC added.
US president has also called for increasing oil production to compensate the possible reduction in production of Iran, Libya and Venezuela in international markets, Kazempour Ardabili said.
Iran is confident that it will continue to export oil in spite of US interference attempts through sanctions, the Iranian representative at OPEC Hossein added.
"The market is still open for us, we continue to export oil at this time and we expect that we will continue to export it," said Ardabili, answering the question of what will happen to Iranian oil exports after the US sanctions against Tehran have resumed.
In Jul. 17, first vice president, Eshagh Jahangiri, has stressed that all countries need Iran's crude oil, arguing that stopping Iran's oil exports altogether is impossible , and that Tehran can always find new ways of selling crude.
Jahangiri: "Stopping Iran's oil exports is just wishful thinking"
'I think what they are doing actually is (leading to) higher prices because the fundamentals even do not warrant this level of prices,' The Iranian representative at OPEC added.
'If they kept quiet, the prices would be cheaper, I am confident about that,' he noted. 'I am telling him (Trump), keep quiet, do not do any tweets, and then you will be better off in the prices,' Kazempour Ardabili stated.
'I think first of all they are not attempting to break Iran; they are trying to change Iranian behavior on issues which are not related to oil,' The Iranian representative at OPEC said.
Ardabili is in Algeria to participate in the 10th meeting of Joint OPEC/Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC).
Representatives from some 24 countries, including Iran, are present in the Committee session which is chaired by Saudi Arabia.
In 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC crude oil producers including Russia struck a historic agreement to curb their overall production by 1.8 million barrels per day by December 2018.
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