By Alice Salles at theantimedia.org
Following President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, the Iranian government announced it would stop using the U.S. dollar “as its currency of choice in its financial and foreign exchange reports,” the local Financial Tribune reported.
Iran governor Valiollah Seif’s central bank announced the decision in a television interview on January 29. The change will take effect on March 21, and it will impact all official financial and foreign exchange reports.
“Iran’s difficulties [in dealing] with the dollar,” Seif said, “were in place from the time of the primary sanctions and this trend is continuing,” but when it comes to other currencies, he added, “we face no limitations.”
In a piece published by Forbes, Dominic Dudley contends that this move is significant “in the light of the recent ‘Muslim ban‘” announced by Trump. Iran nationals were added to the order issued by the current U.S. administration, which prompted the Iranian government to vow to stop issuing visas to U.S. citizens.
Dudley notes that since 1975, “no Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks in the US by the citizens of the countries included in the ban,” while countries such as Saudi Arabia — “home of 15 of the 19 terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks” — were left out of the list of prohibited countries.
Despite the country’s decision to halt the use of the U.S. dollar as its base currency for exchange with other nations, Iran’s top export is oil. In the global markets, oil is mainly purchased and sold in U.S. dollars. This fiscal year, Iran is expected to earn $41 billion from oil sales, with countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China as their top clients. It’s still uncertain how the country will manage to switch currencies without relying on the American currency. The shift, Dudley notes, “will add a degree of currency risk and volatility and is likely to complicate matters for the authorities.”
This matters because predominantly Muslim countries left out of the “Muslim ban” include Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s top oil exporters.
In the 1970s, the Arab nation struck a deal with U.S. President Richard Nixon establishing an alliance that would maintain the dollar as the standard oil exchange currency in exchange for military support from America. The use of the dollar as a standard currency for oil exchange was accepted by Saudi Arabia and the remaining block of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which include Iran and 11 other Middle Eastern, African, and South American countries.
OPEC countries account for 42 percent of global oil production, holding 73 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Due to its influence, the use of the U.S. dollar as its standard currency helps to keep demand for the U.S. dollar high, giving the currency the support it requires to remain “the world’s reserve currency” and preventing the effects of inflation from hitting the U.S. consumer.
Iran’s decision to exit this deal might impact the U.S. economy and threaten the dollar, prompting the U.S. government to take stern measures to combat Iran’s actions. After all, Iran holds 13 percent of OPEC’s oil reserves.
Related articles:
U.S. Blaming Iran for Attack on American Navy That Never Actually Happened
America’s Looming War with Iran: What You’re Not Being Told
Bill To Pre-Emptively Attack Iran Introduced In Congress
This article (Iran Just Officially Ditched the Dollar in Major Blow to US: Here’s Why It Matters) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alice Salles and theAntiMedia.org.
only the wealthy benefit from the US petro dollar. we still have millions of homeless and no jobs
end the fed
you’re information is incorrect. Iran publicly announced they would be leaving the doller last november, it has been common knowledge they’ve wanted out. trumps immigration pause from the seven countries is not the beginning nor the catalyst of this decision
I went to subscribe to this site and it routed me to you tube, there the site has been taken down and in the suggested sites were all the fake news sites and anti trump sites. Must admit it made me laugh.
Keep up the great work and I do surf the net anonymously.
It is likely Iran will accept the Chinese currency or the Euro or Bitcoin
Iraq did this and so did North Korea after the first Gulf War. The US went back into Iraq and set it straight back to accepting dollars for oil. Press Secretary said Iran attacked a US Naval vessel right after the Iranian announcement. The truth is a rebel group attacked a Saudi naval vessel and used Iranian produced weapons according to the Pentagon. That sounds like laying ground work for a war with Iran to set them back on the Dollar for Oil path.
Should a war break out with Iran or Tensions get high, Oil prices will spike on speculation back up into the $90s and $100s. The Supply/Demand, which normally sets economically correct prices for oil model is always “Trumped” by speculation of news. SO who would benefit greatly from a spike in oil prices? Can you say MobilExxon? Rex Tillerson would LOVE to have a war to push oil prices higher. Can you say Russia? Putin would LOVE to have a war or rumor of war to push prices higher. Can you say Saudi Arabia who had to send workers home because they could not afford them anymore with lower oil prices. Can you say EVERY FRACKER in the USA?
Who else would benefit from a war with Iran? the MIC weapons builders and the Banks who supply the funds and loans to the government, paid with taxpayer money. Take the money out of the accounts of taxpayers and hand it to the banks and the Military Industrial Complex.
If the US goes to war with Iran ISIS and AL-Q get new recruits to continue the never ending war on terror with new weapons, new loans and higher oil prices. TaDa! The billionaire Boys club gets richer still. Thank you DJT for sucking the money out of many Americans and into the accounts of the few.
its not just djt to blame for sucking money out the usa people.. every leader theve had like going too war .cos lets face it usa is a trigger happy country allways has been allways will be ..its their way or no way
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No it didn’t officially ditch the dollar, Iran is still using it!
Fomentar guerras é uma das principais atividades da CIA, para intimidar os governos de todos os países a utilizar o dólar como moeda de troca nas transações comerciais internacionais. É um modelo adotado desde o pós-guerra, operado pelo BIS e os Bancos Centrais de todo o mundo. Quando o Khadaffi passou a aceitar o Euro para pagamento do petróleo, os USA invadiram a Libia. Anteriormente, o Iraque também foi destruído, pela mesma razão – restaurar o dólar como moeda padrão. E todas as guerras promovidas pelos EUA têm o objetivo principal de tornar o dólar moeda oficial do mundo, nos planos de implementação do Governo Mundial, projeto maior dos “banksters”, ora em fase de implementação…
exactly.