Addressing a weekly cabinet session on Wednesday, Rouhani said the coronavirus pandemic and the unprecedented plunge in the oil price have harmed economies in the world and made economic forecasts pointless.

“The situation we are witnessing in the oil (industry) is rare, as all oil-rich countries, including us, will suffer losses, but our losses in such conditions would be much less,” the president said.

“The more a country has been reliant upon crude oil, the more difficult conditions it will have. But since our dependence on oil has been reduced, either intentionally or unintentionally, by design or imposed by the enemies, we will definitely suffer fewer harms,” the president added.

He further highlighted Iran’s success in coping with the coronavirus outbreak and containing the spread of the disease, saying the production of medical supplies and disinfectants inside the country has reached such a high level that Iran can now export those items after fulfilling the domestic needs.

The president also paid tribute to all Iranian people, entrepreneurs, and knowledge-based companies for contributing to the national efforts in the battle with COVID-19.

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In an interview with Tasnim, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, the ex-OPEC envoy from Iran, said the outbreak of the coronavirus that has dampened global demands for oil and the recent unfruitful OPEC+ meeting caused the oil to prices nosedive.

The oil market has become uncared for, he said, adding that the prices will not be corrected as long as there is no management.

Predicting a further decline in the prices, Khatibi said every country is now producing as much oil as it wants to.

He also noted that Saudi Arabia is one of the parties bearing the brunt of such a drop in the oil prices, saying that the “price war” between Saudis and Russians seems to go on.

The former Iranian envoy also did not rule out an emergency meeting of OPEC in the near future.

Oil prices have plunged dramatically after OPEC’s failure to strike a deal with its allies regarding production cuts caused Saudi Arabia to slash its prices as it reportedly gets set to ramp up production, leading to fears of an all-out price war.

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