Tehran, YJC. The Iranian representative to OPEC has said that Saudi Arabia is not off competitions for OPEC Secretary General poisition.
Mohammadali Khatibi said in
interview with Fars news agency regarding the elections for Director of Research of the
OPEC Secretariat "Four
countries had introduced candidates for the position,
but since Saudi Arabia held no position in the OPEC Secretariat, the Arabian
candidate received most votes in a simple election and was made Director of
Research at the Secretariat.”
He answered the question if
with this new position Saudi Arabia will abandon the Secretary General elections
as "I have not heard anything about that so far, so Saudi Arabia is still in the
competition for the position of Secretary General along with Iran and Iraq.”
Khatibi pointed out that
the procedures to qualify candidates may change, adding "These procedures are
mostly trivia. In the end the OPEC Secretary General will be elected by votes
and general consensus of all members.”
He added that the Secretary
General of OPEC will certainly not be elected on May 31 and discussions over
electing the new OPEC Secretary General will be relegated to the following
session.