Iran Declares Return to World Economy : Mideast: Leaders see need for foreign investment, cooperation on stable oil prices.

The Iranian government declared its return to the world economic community Monday, publicly acknowledging its need for foreign investment and declaring its intention to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to seek stable oil prices.

More than 300 delegates to the Conference on Oil and Gas in the 1990s: Prospects for Cooperation--the first international conference held in Iran since the Islamic revolution of 1979--heard a strong message from President Hashemi Rafsanjani and his senior Cabinet officials.

The revolution has triumphed, they said in effect; the Persian Gulf wars have ended, and it is time for Iran to forget about exporting radicalism and to seek good relations with other nations.

The delegates to the conference--oil company executives, government officials, industry analysts and journalists from more than 20 countries--generally agreed that the significance of the event, sponsored by the National Iranian Oil Co. and the Foreign Ministry, was more symbolic than substantive.

Since the death two years ago of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran has been moving at an accelerating pace to end its isolation from the rest of the world and to liberalize its stricken economy. The policies declared Monday did not go much beyond what has been said earlier. What mattered was the setting: a coming-out party of sorts, a debut with fanfare and finery, for a nation gripped by xenophobia for more than a decade.

“There’s certainly a new mood around here,” said a smiling Saudi delegate.

Iran needs foreign help to rebuild after eight years of war with Iraq, and it wants long-term, reliable customers for its oil to finance the future well-being of its fast-growing population, the Iranians said. Iran, Rafsanjani told the conference, “is ready to embark on mutual cooperation with regional and non-regional countries to secure viable peace and stability within the framework of sensible policies.”

In the new era, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati said, “economic considerations overshadow political priorities.”

In an atmosphere that approached the festive, the Iranians omitted from their remarks the denunciations of the United States that have been standard here. In fact, they criticized no country other than Iraq.

Even the speaker considered most representative of the views of the religious element of the country’s leadership, Sayed Zadeh, chairman of the petroleum committee of Iran’s Parliament, avoided sharp criticism of the West. While not taking issue with the views expressed by Rafsanjani and Velayati, however, Zadeh warned against engagements that he said could lead to continued exploitation of Third World people by imperialists.

An obstacle to improved relations between Iran and some Western governments is the still-unresolved issue of Western hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

After 12 years of austerity, Iran has few facilities suitable for an event of this kind. The site of the conference, an ornate 17th-Century caravansary converted into the best hotel of this fabled seat of the Safavid dynasty, was chosen to show the country’s best face to potential partners and customers, officials said.

Saudi oil policy calls for long-term cooperation between oil producers and oil consumers to end the wild price swings of the past two decades that disrupted the economies of both groups. Saudi Oil Minister Hisham Nazir, making the first visit to Iran by a Saudi oil minister since the revolution, said that “consumers want assured supplies at reasonable prices” and producers want “a stable share of the oil market and a reliable source of income.”

A constant push for higher prices, he said, advances neither objective. Iran endorsed that position fully Monday.

“If producers satisfy the consumers’ energy requirements through timely and sufficient supplies, a major portion of world capital would not be wasted as huge costs of maintaining strategic petroleum reserves,” Iranian Oil Minister Gholamreza Aghazadeh said. “By guaranteeing to meet the demand for oil and preventing unnecessary and destructive oil price fluctuations, the consumers, too, can play their part in allowing for a smooth and orderly implementation of the producers’ economic development projects.”

By aligning itself with Saudi Arabia on oil prices, Iran has apparently put at least a temporary end to the struggle of price hawks versus price doves within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Iran has traditionally been among the leaders in pressing for higher prices.

Because of the Persian Gulf War, neither hawkish Iraq nor dovish Kuwait will have the power to challenge the Saudi-Iranian position at next week’s OPEC meeting in Vienna.