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Iran's OPEC Boss: Trump's Tweets Have Added $10 to Oil Prices

by Reuters

   LONDON --

   U.S. President Donald Trump, who recently called on OPEC producers to
   help reduce oil prices, has raised prices through his tweets, Iranian
   OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili was quoted as saying by news
   agency SHANA on Thursday.

   "Your tweets have increased the prices by at least $10. Please stop
   this method," the oil ministry news agency quoted Kazempour Ardebili as
   saying.

   Kazempour Ardebili said Trump was trying to intensify tensions between
   Iran and Saudi Arabia and he called on the United States to join world
   powers in a meeting with Iran in Vienna on Friday.

   Foreign ministers from the five remaining signatories of a nuclear deal
   between Tehran and world powers will meet Iranian officials in Vienna
   to discuss how to keep the accord alive after the U.S. withdrawal from
   the pact.

   Strait of Hormuz threat

   The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday their forces
   were ready to implement Iran's threat to block the Strait of Hormuz and
   that if Iran cannot sell its oil under the U.S. pressure, no other
   regional country will be allowed to.

   "We are hopeful that this plan expressed by our president will be
   implemented if needed ... We will make the enemy understand that either
   all can use the Strait of Hormuz or no one," Mohammad Ali Jafari,
   commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, was quoted as saying
   by Tasnim news agency.