
Iran's Ahmadinejad says oil price artificial
The current high price of oil is artificial and the market is well supplied with crude, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.
"The rise in consumption is lower than the rise in production," Ahmadinejad told a meeting in the city of Isfahan of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fund for international development.
"The market is well supplied but prices are rising and this situation is artificial and imposed" by world powers.
Ahmadinejad, who is president of OPEC's number two producer, has repeatedly said that the current high price of oil is not based on fundamentals and is driven largely by the weakness of the dollar.
"Certain hands, for political and economic ends, are controlling the price in an artificial manner," he said.
Ahmadinejad also said "certain powers" were keeping an artificial oil price to "fund the costs of their wars and occupations and to justify investments to exploit new sources of energy at the bottom of the oceans, at the poles and elsewhere."
Oil prices have hit record highs of close to 140 dollars a barrel.
In Asian trade on Tuesday, the main New York futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, dropped 15 cents to 134.46 dollars per barrel after striking an intraday record of 139.89 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In inaugural address, Joe Biden will appeal to national unity

Far-right personality 'Baked Alaska' arrested in Capitol riot probe

Egypt unveils 3000-year old coffins in latest archaeological discovery

Law enforcement officials brace for pro-Trump protests at state capitols

Explained: Why Kremlin critic Navalny faces immediate arrest in Russia?

Dutch PM Mark Rutte and his entire cabinet quits over welfare scandal
- The Netherlands is the third European country thrown into political uncertainty this week in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

Brazil regulator to decide on emergency use of Sinovac, AstraZeneca vaccines

US military says its troop removal from Somalia is complete

Cargo ship sinks in the Black Sea; 3 dead, 6 rescued

Kamala Harris to resign from Senate seat on Monday ahead of Inauguration Day

Israel Prison Service to start vaccinating inmates, including Palestinian ones

Donald Trump pushed the limits of the US legal system: Here’s how it held up

Avoid 'absurd nonsense' about Tehran's nuclear work: Iran's Zarif tells France

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny takes off on plane to Russia despite arrest threat
