Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that OPEC’s members have expressed interest in converting their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a "worthless piece of paper."  (What a nut job.)

His comments at the end of a rare summit of OPEC heads of state exposed fissures within the 13-member cartel – especially after U.S. ally Saudi Arabia was reluctant to mention concerns about the falling dollar in the summit’s final declaration.

The hard-line Iranian leader’s comments also highlighted the growing challenge that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, faces from Iran and its ally Venezuela within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper," Ahmadinejad told reporters after the close of the summit in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. He blamed President Bush’s policies for the decline of the dollar and its negative effect on other countries. 

 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez echoed this sentiment Sunday on the sidelines of the summit, saying, "The empire of the dollar has to end."

"Don’t you see how the dollar has been in freefall without a parachute?" Chavez said, calling the euro a better option.  (Nut job #2.)

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah had tried to direct the focus of the summit toward studying the effect of the oil industry on the environment, but he continuously faced challenges from Ahmadinejad and Chavez.  (These two are quite a pair.)

Iran and Venezuela have proposed trading oil in a basket of currencies to replace the historic link to the dollar, but they had not been able to generate support from enough fellow OPEC members – many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch U.S. allies.

But by Sunday, it appeared that Saudi Arabia had compromised. Though the final declaration delivered Sunday did not specifically mention concern over the weak dollar, the organization directed its finance ministers to study the issue.

Iran’s oil minister went a step further and said OPEC would form a committee to study the dollar’s effect on oil prices and investigate the possibility of a currency basket.

Let’s shift away from Iran and Venezuela!

Technorati Tags: OPEC, US currency, Iran, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 

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