Iran and Venezuela vowed at the weekend to work together to stabilise falling global oil prices that have plunged more than 55 per cent since June to less than $50 (£33.13) a barrel.

With Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by his side, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged members of the oil-producing nations’ body Opec to “neutralise schemes by some powers against Opec and help stabilise an acceptable oil price in 2015.”

Both Iran and Venezuela rely on oil prices to boost their respective economies.

Mr Maduro is touring several Opec nations to drum up support for a production cut to boost prices and is due to visit Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to discuss the oil market slump.

“We are making efforts to create a consensus among Opec members and other oil-producing states, including Russia, to co-operate and use novel mechanisms to reverse the oil price to an acceptable level,” said the Venezuelan president.

Mr Maduro met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later, who blamed the freefall in oil prices on the two countries’ “common enemies.”

He said: “The strange drop in oil prices in such a short time is a political ploy and unrelated to the market.”

“Our common enemies are using oil as a political ploy and they definitely have a role in this severe fall in prices,” Mr Khamenei said in talks with Mr Maduro.

“The supreme leader endorsed an agreement between the presidents of Iran and Venezuela for a co-ordinated campaign against the slide in oil prices,” the official IRNA news agency reported.