UAE official replies to US President’s criticism on OPEC

Baku. 26 September. REPORT.AZ/ A senior UAE official said on Tuesday that oil prices were driven by markets, after U.S. President Donald Trump earlier rebuked OPEC and high oil prices.

“At the end of the day we all know that oil prices are driven by markets, by supply and demand,” said Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

“These are not things that can be manipulated by a decision here or there and god knows in the past OPEC had tried to lift the prices up by deliberation. It depends on inventories, expectation for growth,” said Gargash, whose country is an OPEC member.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday told a gathering of world leaders that OPEC is cheating them, bringing a grievance he has voiced throughout the year on Twitter to the halls of the United Nations headquarters.

"OPEC and OPEC nations are as usual ripping off the rest of the world, and I don't like it. Nobody should like it," he said before the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.

"We defend many of these nations for nothing, and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices. Not good."