A Senior Commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards becomes New President of Opec

A senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran has just become president of Opec.

Iran revolutionary guards commander becomes new president of Opec

A senior Iranian revolutionary guards commander targeted by international sanctions has taken over the presidency of Opec after he became Iran's oil minister on Wednesday.

Rostam Ghasemi, head of the Khatam al-Anbia military and industrial base, was one of four ministersnominated by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to join his cabinet last week and approved by Iran's conservative-dominated parliament.

He took 216 votes from the 240some present in the parliament. This has been announced as a reaction to sanctions and various bad press from the west.

"The clever and decisive vote of Iranian MPs for engineer Ghasemi to become the oil minister is a meaningful and crucial response to the attacks against the guards from the west's media empire," said Ramedan Sharif, the head of the revolutionary guards public relations' unit, in quotes carried by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.

Will this mean even higher prices for oil - and thus, war on the way??