Barry Rubin: And The New Head of OPEC Is….: Energy Independence Anyone?

And The New Head of OPEC Is….: Energy Independence Anyone?

by Barry Rubin

Summary: It’s not every day when I high-ranking official of a revolutionary Islamist group that seeks world revolution, wiping Israel off the map, the widespread use of terrorism, and the destruction of the United States becomes head of the world’s most powerful energy organization on whose suppies America is dependent.

Rostam Ghasemi is a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and runs one of its big military-industrial operations. In other words, he makes arms some of which are sent to Iraq to kill Americans. He has just been appointed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be Iran’s oil minister. Ghasemi, an engineer, has been personally sanctioned by the United States and EU because of his involvement in Iran’s nuclear program.


This is the man who will now head the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC), which sets the prices and production levels for oil.

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Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press in January 2012. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports, and now on his new blog, Rubin Reports, on Pajamas Media

Technorati Tag: OPEC and Iran.