COLUMNA de AZTLAN

What will the U.S. do if it is drawn into another front?

There is little doubt in my mind that Israel's Transport Minister did not know that his reckless comments would move the crude oil market to the upside. Mofaz and his buddies, who may have been privy beforehand to Mofaz's threatening speech towards Iran, would have made a great deal of money if they were long (betting the price would move up) crude oil futers.

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - Iran demanded action from the U.N. Security Council about an Israeli threat to attack its nuclear sites if it continues uranium enrichment, according to a letter released on Saturday by Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee.

Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz was quoted on Friday in an Israeli newspaper saying that an attack on Iran looks "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential.

TEHRAN, Feb 17, 2008 (AFP) - Iran on Sunday inaugurated its first stock exchange for oil products and petrochemicals, in a bid to become a major player in the global downstream industry.

OPEC's number two crude oil producer hopes that its oil exchange can lead the way for a domestic downstream industry to match its upstream crude oil production, the country's main foreign currency revenue winner.

"We have been a good seller (of crude oil) and now we have a higher objective to have a share in the oil trade," Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters.

Iran claims to rank second in the region after Saudi Arabia in terms of production of petrochemicals at 22 million tons a year.

But it has failed to gain a significant share in the world export market because of state control of its petrochemical industry and state subsidies.

"The objective is to make transactions (of oil products) transparent, create competition and motives for investment," the oil minister added.