Iran president calls for regional cooperation to tackle market crisis

Monday, 01 December 2008, 18:55 IST
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Doha: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called upon the Persian Gulf states to reconcile their differences and collectively tackle the impact of the global financial crisis on the region's economy. "We must be careful that big powers do not pass on their economic problems to this region," official IRNA news agency Sunday quoted him as telling the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on the sidelines of an international conference on development here. In his address to the conference Saturday, Ahmadinejad, whose country is facing steep unemployment and inflation, blamed the West's economic models for creating the economic crisis. The UN sponsored conference is aimed at making rich nations commit to pumping billion of dollars into developing countries to save their economies from tottering under the impact of the global market meltdown. But many western nations, the World Bank and the IMF did not attend the forum. "They call it global, but this crisis came into being as a result of misusing others countries' resources," Ahmadinejad said and added, "they only want partners to share their losses." French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was among the few leaders to attend the conference, also strongly cautioned the rich against "sacrificing" the poor while looking for solutions to an "unprecedented financial crisis." An estimated 40 million people will plunge into poverty in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis, according to the World Bank.
Source: IANS
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