Iran has new Oil Minister after long debacle

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 11 – Iran’s Majlis, or Parliament, approved on Sunday hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fourth nomination to occupy the key post of Oil Minister. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 11 – Iran’s Majlis, or Parliament, approved on Sunday hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fourth nomination to occupy the key post of Oil Minister.

Acting Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh was approved with 172 votes in his favour and 53 votes against him. 34 Majlis deputies abstained from voting and several did not turn up to take part in the vote.

Vaziri-Hamaneh is a veteran Oil Ministry official who served in the previous government as a deputy oil minister. The important portfolio has remained vacant since August, as deputies in the hardline-dominated Majlis voted down three other nominees for the job on the grounds that they were not capable of handling the vital oil sector.

Iran is the world’s fourth biggest crude producer and derives 80 percent of its export earnings from oil and gas.