Iran’s Aliabadi to attend OPEC meeting, Vice President says

Bloomberg: Iran’s Mohammad Aliabadi, appointed last week by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the nation’s acting oil minister, will represent the nation when OPEC members meet this week, the ministry’s news website Shana said.

Bloomberg

By Ladane Nasseri

Iran’s Mohammad Aliabadi, appointed last week by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the nation’s acting oil minister, will represent the nation when OPEC members meet this week, the ministry’s news website Shana said.

Aliabadi, former head of Iran’s Physical Education Organization, will participate in the June 8 OPEC meeting, Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said today, according to Shana.

Iran, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia, holds the group’s rotating presidency this year.

Ahmadinejad appointed Aliabadi as a caretaker for the oil ministry on June 2, a day after Iran’s parliament voted to ask the courts to review whether the president broke the law by failing to appoint a temporary oil minister after he fired the previous one and put himself in charge.

Ahmadinejad sacked the country’s oil minister, Masoud Mir- Kazemi, in a reshuffle on May 14. He appointed himself one day later as the country’s oil caretaker, a move that was criticized by local industry experts and described on May 20 as “unlawful” by the Guardian Council, Iran’s top legal authority.