TEHRAN, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Any oil price shock that would follow a military strike on Iran would likely cripple the Western "liberal" economy, an Iranian lawmaker said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran was conducting computer modeling and other theoretical work that possibly tied its nuclear energy efforts to a weapons program. Israel, in a prelude to the Tuesday report, had said it was considering a military strike on Iran.
Mohammad Karim Abedi, an Iranian lawmaker on a national security committee in Parliament, said any strike on Iran would be followed by an economic catastrophe.
"Just as the socialist economy disintegrated, today, the liberal economy is falling to pieces, and that is the reason the U.S. and the Zionists, who have maintained their inauspicious existence through threats and intimidation, opt to threaten nations," Fars News Agency quoted Abedi as saying.
The Fars report said oil prices per barrel could spike by as much as $61 per day given a prolonged market disruption brought on by military conflict in Iran.
The International Energy Agency during the summer called on member states to release strategic oil reserves because of market restrictions brought on by the war in Libya.
Iran ranks third in the world in terms of proven oil reserves among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. At the end of 2010, Libya was ranked seventh by OPEC in terms of proven reserves.
