Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.15 / Trend D.Khatinoglu/
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cancelled Qatar visit, Fars News Agency reported. He was supposed to participate in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit.
The first summit of GECF has kicked off in Doha today under the presidency of Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Earlier, Iran Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that President Almadinejad will attend the Qatar summit.
Iranin Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi is participating in summit.
Iran's GECF representative Mohammad Ali Khatabi said in an interview with Iranian state television from Doha that Qasemi attends the gas meeting on behalf of President Almadinejad.
The forum unites 12 countries as full members and 3 as observers. Full members possess 42 percent of gas production in the world, 70 percent of gas reservoirs, 38 percent of gas pipelines transportation and 85 percent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) business.
The Gas Exporting Countries (GECF) members are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela, while kazakhstan, Norway and the Netherlands hold an observer status.