Iran’s senior policymaker vows support for OPEC market policies

A senior Iranian policy-maker has vowed support for market policies of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who currently leads Iran’s Constitutional Council as well as the Assembly of Experts, said on Thursday that Iran will continue to support “the noble objectives of to help maintain stability in the global oil market”.

Ayatollah Jannati’s remarks, as covered on OPEC secretariat’s official Twitter page, came during a meeting with OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo.

Barkindo has travelled to Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raeisi.

However, a report on the website of Iran’s Constitutional Council said Barkindo had demanded a meeting with Ayatollah Jannati, without elaborating on why the audience had been requested.

Jannati is a close aide to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and normally stays above the fray in Iran’s political system.

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The report said that Ayatolah Jannati had called on the OPEC to coordinate Iran’s return to oil export markets once the country is relieved of sanctions.

It said Jannati had also reiterated Iran’s policy of supporting OPEC’s role in international oil market.

That comes as OPEC and non-OPEC producers, a grouping known as OPEC+, have been concerned about a sudden increase in Iranian oil supplies if talks on revival of Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement succeeds and the US lifts its sanctions from Tehran.

OPEC+ members have agreed on cuts to global supplies since last year in an effort to help boost prices that have been affected by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran has dismissed the concerns about its return, saying the country has every right to fully recover its baseline share of the oil export market some three years after US sanctions caused a major decline in the country’s crude sales.

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