Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that certain Western countries seek to cause division and differences among the member states of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to serve their own interests. Raisi made the remarks in a meeting with OPEC Secretary-General Haitham Al Ghais in Tehran, according to a statement published on the website of the Iranian president's office. The Iranian president called on the OPEC member states to foster solidarity, adding their constructive interaction is an "important" factor in the organization's "successful" performance. Raisi said Iran has always had "constructive" cooperation with the OPEC and seeks to continue and raise the level of such collaborations. He expressed hope that the organization, as said in its mission, would manage to curb the turmoil in the oil market. For his part, Ghais said Iran, as a founding member of OPEC, has always had "fruitful, effective and constructive" cooperation with the organization and its other members, noting that Iran has always worked toward fostering solidarity and unity among the OPEC members. The OPEC's chief hoped that the member states would be able to restore calm to the oil market on the back of greater unity among themselves and Iran's "constructive" cooperation. OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is a group of 13 oil-producing nations that work together to coordinate and regulate oil production in order to stabilize the global oil market. Saudi Arabia is the largest producer and de facto leader of the organization. OPEC+ refers to the alliance between OPEC and ten other oil-producing countries, including Russia, Mexico, and Kazakhstan, that was formed in 2016 to further coordinate oil production cuts and stabilize prices. The top OPEC producers and their main allies have been sending mixed messages about their oil policy moves, making it difficult to predict the outcome of the next OPEC+ meeting in early June. Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the de facto leader of OPEC, recently warned short sellers to "watch out." This caused the market to rise by as much as 2%.
