‘Iran oil min. to chair OPEC meeting’

Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi is set to participate in an upcoming meeting of the members of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna as the chief of the bloc, says a report.

Qasemi is scheduled to attend the meeting on December 14 after his name was “removed from the sanctions list of the Western countries” due to the efforts of the ministries of oil and foreign affairs, Mehr news agency reported.

Qasemi, the former head of Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters which belongs to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), was placed on a US sanctions list in January 2010.

Five months later, the EU put him on a sanctions list in an attempt to bar the Iranian minister from traveling overseas or holding assets in Europe.

Iran currently holds the rotating presidency of OPEC which produces about 40 percent of world crude.

The last OPEC talks broke down after Iran, Venezuela and Algeria refused to consider an output increase.