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MEXICO CITY, March 10 (Reuters) – Mexico is seeking to mediate the oil dispute between Russia and Saudi Arabia, its finance minister said on Tuesday, saying the conflict that has battered global oil prices has affected Latin America’s second-largest economy.
“We are checking what mediation channels we could have,” finance minister Arturo Herrera said in an interview with Mexican outlet W Radio, adding that third party involvement was needed to build bridges between the two sides.
“It is very difficult for either side to take a step back” without outside help, he said, noting that Mexico had in the past mediated in conflicts. He did not give more details.
International crude oil prices plunged nearly 25% on Monday in their worst daily rout since the 1991 Gulf War. Top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia began a price war that threatens to inundate global oil markets with supply.
Either “we try to do something, or we sit back and watch what happens to crude oil prices,” Herrera said. (Reporting by Abraham Gonzalez; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Dan Grebler)
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