(Updates to add background to King Abdullah’s comment)
RIYADH (Thomson Financial) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah said on Saturday that oil should not be allowed to become a tool of war, in a speech at the opening of the summit for OPEC leaders in Riyadh.
Shortly before King Abdullah spoke, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned oil prices could hit 200 usd a barrel if the United States attacked Iran or Venezuela.
‘If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil could reach 150 usd or even 200 usd,’ he said.
‘The basis of all aggression is oil. It is the underlying reason,’ he said, pointing to the war in Iraq and US threats against Iran.
‘Today OPEC stands strong. It is stronger than it has ever been in the past,’ he said. ‘OPEC should set itself up as an active geopolitical agent.’
He also suggested the 12-member organisation should ‘ask the most powerful nation in the world to stop threatening OPEC’, referring to the United States.
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