Iran will never back off from its nominee: Oil Minister

Iran?s oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh stressed that Iran will stand firmly by its candidate for OPEC secretary general position, Thehran Times reported Thursday.

"If they (the other members) don't vote for Iran's candidate there is no reason for Iran to vote for others," Oil Minister said.

?This time Iran is the best choice to be OPEC?s secretary general since it is a long time we have voted for those who have never voted for us,? Zanganeh said. Speaking in the sideline of Iran Plast International Exhibition held in Tehran, the minister rejected the news concerning Iranian nominee?s non-experience, adding, ?This is a political move.?

Iran provided OPEC's first secretary general in 1961 and Kuwait the third, in 1965.

OPEC member countries have to agree on a name to fill the top administrative job at the organization?s headquarters in Vienna.

But, although a consensus is built within OPEC to maintain its oil production ceiling until at least early next year at their recent meeting, the 11-nation oil cartel remains divided over who will be its next secretary general.

Automatically, if the members fail to reach a consensus, it could resort to alphabetical order. In this case, Iran would emerge as winner while Indonesia would be the first to sit on. (*)