The world financial crisis may be hurting the West but Iranian officials should not revel in the woes of their opponents because Tehran is also being hit by falling oil prices, a former president said on Friday.
Several officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in particular blamed arch-foe Washington for the crisis saying it was reaping what it sowed from costly U.S. military actions. Iran wants U.S. forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Officials have often said Iran, largely isolated from world finance by U.S. and U.N. sanctions, was relatively immune.
But the world's fourth largest oil producer has become more dependent on oil earnings since Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 and now has to deal with one result of the financial turmoil: plunging crude prices.
Crude has tumbled to below half its July peak of $147 a barrel. This means prices are now below levels that some economists say Iran needs in order to balance its books.
"We should not think the financial crisis that hit the world is in our interest and so on and express joy," Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a political rival to Ahmadinejad and now head of a powerful clerical body, told Friday prayers.
"It should not be that some say the crisis is very good for us and it is a miracle coming from God to punish them (the West)," said Rafsanjani, who is also a cleric, in his sermon to worshippers that was broadcast on state radio.
"The first negative consequence of the wave is the fall in oil prices … The drop in oil causes major damage to us. We have to be alert and cooperate with each other to contain the negative results of the next wave coming from this tsunami."
Rafsanjani, president in the 1990s, lost to Ahmadinejad in his comeback bid in 2005. He is not expected to run again in June 2009, when Ahmadinejad may seek re-election, but he remains an influential figure in one of the opposing camps.
The former president has openly criticised current economic policies, which critics of Ahmadinejad blame for inflation of about 29 percent. They say the president has squandered windfall oil revenues in a spending spree.
In his sermon, Rafsanjani also told Washington not to try to divert attention from the crisis by looking for scapegoats.
"Such incidents can lead to a foolish, imperialistic act of blaming others for their problems. It might be the Americans reach the conclusion that global adventurism can to some extent alleviate the results of the crisis on their internal affairs."
Some economists say Iran, which a few years ago lived with oil around $20 to $25 a barrel, now needs $70 to $75 to stop its current account going into deficit, which would be tough to finance because of the country's financial isolation
Some have put the figure Iran needs at about $100 a barrel.
Benchmark U.S. crude prices slid to around $64 a barrel on Friday, despite OPEC's pledged to reduce output by 1.5 million barrels per day — a figure lower than the cut Iran had called for. Iran's heavier crudes tend to trade below U.S. oil.
