Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend the next OPEC meeting set for June 8 in Vienna, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted a senior official as saying on Wednesday.
Iran is the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and holds the one-year rotating presidency of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC), ministers of which are due to meet next month to discuss oil output policy.
“Considering that the president is the oil ministry’s caretaker, Ahmadinejad will attend the upcoming OPEC meeting,” said Mohammad Reza Mirtajeddini.
Ahmadinejad has been acting as temporary head of the oil ministry after he dismissed Iran’s oil minister earlier this month.
By law, the president has three months after removing a minister to introduce a new candidate to parliament. During that period he can act as head of the ministry or appoint someone to the post.
Massoud Mirkazemi and two other Iranian ministers were dismissed as part of a plan to merge several ministries to cut their number to 17 from 21.
A shake-up of the department in charge of Iran’s oil was expected after some officials said earlier this month that the oil and energy ministries and labour and social welfare ministries would be merged.
