Iran Revolutionary Guard Commander Becomes New President of OPEC

If you were worried about foreign oil before and production gouging by OPEC before, just wait until you hear who's the organization's new president.

The Guardian is reporting that Rostam Ghasemi, who on Wednesday became Iran's oil minister, is now the new head of OPEC. But not only is he from the U.S.-hating Iran, he's also been sanctioned by the U.S., the E.U. and Australia and has his assets blacklisted.

The Revolutionary Guard and Iran couldn't be happier.

"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," Ramedan Sharif, the head of the revolutionary guards public relations' unit, said, according to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.

Still, there are some in Iran who are worried, including Ali Motahari, a prominent conservative MP who has previously threatened to impeach Ahmadinejad.

"The integration of the guard, as a military force, in political and economic power is not in the interests of the system," Motahari told the parliament. "In neighboring countries, military officials are distancing themselves from politics and power, while it's the opposite in Iran."

Because Iran took over the leadership of OPEC last October, whoever becomes Iran's oil minister automatically becomes the president of the oil cartel.