In statements likely to rattle world oil markets, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said developed countries, not producing countries like Iran, are benefiting the most from the current high prices.
“The global oil price has not reached its real value yet. The products derived from crude oil are sold at prices dozens of times higher than those charged by oil-producing countries,” state-run Tehran radio quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
“Oil is the major asset of nations possessing it. Its price should not be lowered on the pretext that it will prove harmful to developing states, thus permitting the world powers to benefit the most from it,” he said.
Ahmadinejad urged oil-producing countries — within and outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — to establish a fund to help alleviate the pressure resulting from high oil prices on Third World nations.
Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit said he considered it unlikely that Iran had any intention of cutting off its oil, the lifeline of its economy.
Gheit noted, however, that there was some truth in Ahmadinejad’s comment on developed countries benefiting most from increased oil prices, though the statement would likely be seen as an attempt at “fanning the flames” of a red-hot oil market.
“What he’s saying makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the source of the comment is going to send jitters in the market,” Gheit said.
“The street value (of oil) is triple what OPEC is making,” Gheit added, referring to the value of a barrel of gasoline versus the value of a barrel of oil.
Gheit estimated that in London, where the retail price of gasoline is about $6 a gallon, about $150 worth of gasoline can be made and sold from every $50 barrel of oil.
“That is why Exxon Mobil and all the rest make so much money,” he said.
I think Iran president is very honourfull and courageous man to stand against worlds economic big powers and tell them truth in thier face!
It’s nice to see a muslim leader not lying down as a carpet to be stepped upon by develooped countries governements.
Fighting for more social justice in this world is very noble. I do hope he will encourage more leaders to fight for theirs people right instead of their personal bank accounts* :halo:
Its a nice and liberating statement. I fully support him to be advancing the cause of developing world endlessly exploited by the developed world. Shah of Iran was the first one who realised he could turn the tables by playing the Oil Economy on the face of the Developed World. Naive that he was, his opponents acted a lot earlier than he could.
I wish the world is not the same anymore as it was at the time of Shah and the present day rulers of Iran and its Economic Managers make it happen and liberate the resource (oil) from the speculative markets of the developed world and the syndrome of "hot money" that makes the markets in the developing world volatile, sweeping the capital at the end of the day towards those who are good at speculating and that surely are the people in the developed world.
Noor, I want to add to your information that it is the hypocrisy of the West that has destabilised the world. Its a long story. Cutting it short, may I point it out that these puppet leaders whom we often accuse of being iept and corrupt, rightly so, are actually installed/imposed on the developing world in one way or other. I see that in case of Pakistan atleast, we have these Hypocrites in the west who want Military Leaders to be at the power centre. Illegitimate rulers owe them their security and once they do that the endless cycle of corrupting the whole system starts. Hence it is the personal bank accounts issue that you have raised.
I say let us be ruled by the free will of the people. Good or bad, we would come out of the present day crisis of governing ourselves.
he doesnt sound like a crackpot to me. dozens of times i've seen western posters pick out sentences from him and paint him that way, how about some debate on this pretty accurate commentary on western greed?
It's nice to see a muslim leader not lying down as a carpet to be stepped upon by develooped countries governements.
Fighting for more social justice in this world is very noble. I do hope he will encourage more leaders to fight for theirs people right instead of their personal bank accounts*
Wow, there is some more of that Muslim duplicity again, this time coupled with the famous selective and misguided outrage. This "honourfull and courageous man" talks about wiping out other states from the map. I wonder how many Muslims would take to the streets when equally courageous men, who actually have the capability, talk about wiping neighbors off the map.
Now this noble diatribe is an attempt to mitigate what he knows may happen. Iran imports most of the gasoline it uses. Everytime gasoline has been threatened in Iran, protests have taken place. He is just trying to rally support.
The Islamic world is going up in flames, and this noble man wants to slay the evil West.....very noble of him to fight for more social justice.
^Sad double standards of the Muslim world, today...
They are ready to embrace Hitler if he said he will kill Jews but knowing full well that he will bring destruction to his own people
Look at the great leaders of muslim history
Saladin, Suliman the Magnificent, Kamal Atateruk, Muhammed ali Jinnah
These are people of peace, tranquility, who advoacate freedom and respect other religions and want peaceful solutions to problems
When muslims start embracing idiots like Ahmedinajad, Saadam Hussein, the former prime minister of malaysia (Mahatir something), Osama bin laden, Colonel Qaddafi, Yasser Arafat, what a sad and pathetic list
Lets discuss the topic at hand instead of bashing Ahmedinejad or Iran for that matter. Can we ALL stop bringing in Jew/Israeli factor in all issues related to Iran (esp mercenary!)? Otherwise your post will be deleted.
Actually the West does gain more. You see the west taxes oil at nearly 70% of its price. So if you are paying 3 dollars for a gallon of oil. 70% of that money is going to the Western Governments and not the oil countries.
The processing is owned by the seven sisters of oil. The seven MNCs that are based in the US, EU and UK. After all you hear crude oil prices are 60 or 70 dollars a barrel. That is 100 gallons per barrel. They pump the oil. The seven sisters refine it adding to the cost and gaining the profit.
The oil countries lose out. But recently they have started to take over the processing system. But still 70% of the profits on oil go to the western countries and the processing is covered by western MNCs.
Do not mistake bluster for reality. The Iranian Stock Market has all but collapsed, driving Billions of dollars out of Iran into other Gulf countries. What little external investment that existed in Iran is gone. That means fewer jobs, more unemployment, and this will be disproportionately felt by Irans' youth. Sound familiar? Sound like France?
Iran virtually gives away gasoline to it's people, yet it depends on 40% of it's gasoline being imported from other countries who refine the crude oil. Iran is almost completly dependent on outside expertise for drilling and production of it's oil.
So what has it really accomplished? If you take away the oil from Irans' economy, it has accomplished nothing. Perhaps less than nothing. All of the high-tech weapons they are accumulating stinks of the typical Middle Eastern arms race that succeeds in impoverishing a nation, while ignoring the construction of a vibrant economy.
President NutJob is doing nothing but whipping up Nationalistic Fervor, bantering at World Powers, and hoping that the weakness of his position is not revealed. The Iranians have a broad and powerful merchant class, and a huge number of young people. At the end of the day they all need jobs and a vibrant economy, not rhetoric that makes them feel good until they realize they cannot feed their families. Didn't you figure that out after the Franch riots?
And, there is no bigger "Oil Exploiter" than Arab(Persian) countries who sell oil and waste the procedes on public givaways, and military hardware. Did we learn nothing from Saddam?
When you talk about arms race by the way, look at your own nation..its the largest military spender in the world, dwarfing the spending of other nations by many times.
Its president is a blabbering idiot who blows a whole lot of hot air and not much else. Who's chief operational policy is one of lies and deciet.....He doesnt even do a good job of that as most of his lies and deceptions come out sooner or later..but what he is good at is making his public believe in him despite all his obvious drawbacks. Slowly it seems though his people are becoming wiser and public support is diminishing.....too little too late however as he's changed the nations constitution enough to ensure that him and his liken keep on doing what they do best without any fear of reprisal from the law or the public.
No, I do not see the similarity. And frankly the world needs to be a little more discerning with cheap comparisons. Iran has been lying through it's eyeteeth to the IAEA for years. On the basis of being in compliance with the NPT, the world had favorable trade rules, and Iran was welcomed into the Family of Nations. El Baradei is very clear in refering Iran to the Security Council. Now Iran is trying full bluster to keep weapons that are monsterously destabilizing to the Middle East, and represent a huge risk in the hands of marginally stable Mullahs and excentric leaders.
Do you not think that there is a fortune to be made by France, Germany, the US and Russia in selling nuclear technology? South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Australia, Saudi Arabia, hell, let's sell some to Balochistan! Why not?
Not every country is mature enough and responsible enough to have nuclear power, and by proxy, nuclear weapons. President Nutjob is using every weapon at his disposal to gain regional power, regardless of the consequences. This whole discussion about oil is a sham designed to give the impression that Iran has the power to effect the world economy if they do not get their way.
But then again, Pakistan has been the biggest nuclear proliferator in the last decade, (Thank you AQ Khan). We would not expect you to understand why the rest of the world thinks nuclear proliferation is serious business. :)
Lets see, how many nations have actually and actively used nuclear weapons in the past ? The same nations actually going about causing all this rucus. Where was the talk of banning nuclear weapons when Israel rushed to get theirs ? Oh nevermind..israel is allowed to get them for defensive reasons as its sovereignity is threatened.
But wait..was it not Iran which actually had a democratically elected government that was then toppled and replaced with the puppet regime of the Shah ? Is it not Iran that the has been actively recieving threats of war for the past few years.
Since when did you and your liken start deciding which sovereign nation gets to do what ? Since when did the rest of the world have to follow YOUR rules ?
You speak of nuclear profileration...yet how many people in the world have actively died from nuclear weapons ? Lets see..those YOUR nation killed ? On the other hand thousands of innocents get slaughtered by regular everyday weapons on a daily basis and who's the biggest exporter / distributor of those weapons ? The 5 permanent members of the security council thatr YOUR NATION is a big part of. So no we donot expect you to understand our sentiments either sir.
All in all you're not much but a bunch of mindless sheap running around agreeing with everything your 'democratically elected' leaders tell you.
No im not 100% on the iranian president's side either....for a leader of a nation he's said some remarkably stupid things..but then again living for so many years in the US im no stranger to the remarkable stupid things BUSH has said either.
Iran lies to IAEA through its teeth, US lies to the rest of the world through its teeth...and even when the lies are revealed to be nothing more than a bunch of fabricated facts it still keeps on lying and lying and lying and causing more and more destruction.
Sigh..ultimately though...its not the nations who are hell bent on destruction..but a select few who by hook and crook seem to be able to gain power all across the world and then use that power and their mindless masses to spread havoc across the earth.
He talks about defending his nation from another nation with a history of violence…Since you have been well trained and brainfed by the media, this should come across to you as crackpot sentiments…
Now, when the same country’s media brainfeeds and trains you into believing that attacking an independent nation, killing its people, robbing its resources, ravaging its lands is a means to freedom, justice and liberty, you believe that…
I guess there is very little difference between some humans and Pavlov’s dogs…Simple minds are so easy to manipulate with the subtle power of suggestion…In other words, propaganda…
