Venezuela won't push for Israel boycott
Associated Press
Date: 08-13-06
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela said Sunday that it does not back an OPEC oil boycott to protest Israel's military offensive in Lebanon but warned the conflict would continue "pressuring" world oil prices.
An oil boycott by Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries against Western countries for supporting Israel in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war was responsible for sparking an oil crisis, which quadrupled world crude prices to previously unknown levels.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Sunday that Venezuela would not seek to repeat such a measure despite the country's strong opposition to Israel's attacks on Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
"No, we are not promoting that," Ramirez told reporters.
"What we have been warning and denouncing over the past two years is the permanent aggression of U.S. foreign policy toward OPEC producers," Ramirez added, saying that that conflicts involving OPEC members "will continue pressuring" the market.
President Hugo Chavez's government has accused the U.S. government of being behind the Israeli offensive, which he has likened to a "fascist" assault comparable to the Holocaust.
Ramirez said that record-high oil prices of about $74 a barrel were the responsibility of a U.S. "policy of permanent aggression toward Venezuela, Iran" and "a threat to countries in the Persian Gulf."
Venezuela is a founding member of OPEC and the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
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