Iraq will mark the 40th anniversary of the creation of OPEC, founded in Baghdad in September 1960, with celebrations and a symposium on September 14, the official INA news agency reported Monday.
"Iraq has prepared a programme that comprises notably a large celebration in Baghdad on September 14 and a symposium on the way the cartel affects oil markets," an oil source told INA.
Iraq is to send a high-ranking delegation "grouping several ministers, undersecretaries and experts to Caracas to take part in all talks due to start September 11 until the cartel's summit" from September 26-28, the source added.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited Iraq on August 10 as part of a tour of all OPEC nations to invite their leaders to the Caracas summit, controversially becoming the first head of state to visit Baghdad since the 1991 Gulf War.
Iraq's President Saddam Hussein called on that occasion for OPEC member states to resist US pressure to ensure the success of the summit that sees the cartel meet only for the second time in its 40-year history.
Iraq, which has been under embargo since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, is authorised to export crude oil under the programme to finance imports of essential goods under strict UN supervision.
Although an OPEC member, it is exempted from the cartel's production quota system because of the embargo. – AFP.
©--Agence France Press.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
