Snubbing Chavez, standing up for Iraq, our Coalition ally from QATAR.
Thanks, Tonkin!
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Posted on 09/24/2003 3:49:48 AM PDT by the_greatest_country_ever
Iraq to Attend OPEC Meeting as Full Member
Middle East Online
OPEC President confirms Iraqi delegation will attend formal meeting after disagreement resolved.
VIENNA - Iraq will attend Wednesday's formal meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said, after the cartel had resolved disagreement over how the country should be represented.
"He will," Attiyah replied when asked whether Iraq, represented by a delegation headed by interim Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum, would attend the conference as a full member.
Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez had previously insisted that the Iraqi government should be recognized internationally before being allowed to sit as a full member at a meeting of the cartel.
Bahr al-Ulum, from the new government formed after Saddam Hussein was toppled by US-led forces in April, arrived Tuesday in Vienna at the invitation of the OPEC president, who is also Qatar's energy minister.
But Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez was still insisting Tuesday that the Iraqi government should be recognized internationally before being allowed to sit as a full member at a meeting of the cartel.
In an effort to avert an embarrassing snub to Iraq, the cartel held a late-night meeting Tuesday to try to reach an agreement over how the country, one of OPEC's founding members, should be represented at the conference.
Ramirez later confirmed that Venezuela would no longer oppose Iraq's sitting as a full member.
"Venezuela would have preferred to wait for an international recognition but we are going to follow the position of the other members," he said.
But Iraq was not expected to return Wednesday to the cartel's quota system, from which it was exempted after UN sanctions, lifted in May, were imposed on Baghdad following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
This wasn't an embarrasing snub. This was the attempt of Venezuela's Communist/Islamic terrorist loving dictator Chavez to prevent Iraq from getting back as a full player in the oil business.
Having Iraq's oil around makes it harder for Venezuela to do what it wants to do with its own oil: use it to pressure US allies (witness how it cut off oil to the Dominican Republic earlier this week) and to support US enemies (such as its increased oil supplies to Cuba).
Snubbing Chavez, standing up for Iraq, our Coalition ally from QATAR.
If you want on or off my PRO-coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).
Hey, Hugo, after you've kissed that ass,
you can swim up here and kiss ours.
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