De-Dollarization Accelerates: Iran-Russia “New Trade Agreements” to Drop US Dollar

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=By= Timothy Alexander Guzmam

The threat of war against Iran is not just about its natural resources, strategic control and supposedly to protect Israel, it is also about the US dollar being used for its oil trades. Iran is moving forward to replace US dollars for its foreign trade with Russia in rials and Russian rubles. This past January, Iran made a significant move by “stopping mutual settlements in dollars with foreign countries.” According to RT news “the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has said. “In trade exchanges with foreign countries, Iran uses other currencies, including Chinese yuan, euro, Turkish lira, Russian ruble and South Korean won,” Gholamali Kamyab, CBI deputy head, told the Tasnim state news agency. Iranian and Russian delegates have met to discuss new trade agreements. The Iran Daily just published a report that Iran and Russia are in the process of “establishing a joint bank account with Russia to facilitate trade between the two countries in their own currencies.” The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) governor Valiollah Seif stressed the importance of connecting their banking sectors to bolster trade between Iran and Russia. Seif says that a special committee is needed to overcome any obstacles (U.S. sanctions) and to provide lines of credit. The Iran Daily reported what Iran’s ambassador had said in January regarding Iran and Russia’s trade in their own currencies:

ran’s Ambassador to Russian Mehdi Sanaei said in late January that Tehran and Moscow are working on a plan to switch their bilateral trade to national currencies for which he said the two countries will create a joint bank or a mutual account. “Both sides plan to create a joint bank, or joint account, so that payments may be made in Rubles and Rials and there is an agreement to create a working group [for this],” said Sanaei

This past March, Iran and Russia signed an agreement to jointly create a regulation committee to “oversee interbank financial transactions between the two countries.” The positive outcome of the agreements is to avoid any future sanctions Washington and its crony allies use as a financial weapon against its adversaries. The Iran daily concluded what the outcome would achieve in the long term:

The agreement – that was signed between the Iranian and Russian central banks – took both countries one step closer toward the establishment of the promised joint bank – which is believed to have been specifically designed to help dodge the effects of US-led sanctions on the two countries

That is why Washington is desperate to overthrow the Assad government and that is to weaken Iran’s influence in the region. If Assad is successfully removed, Israel would then concentrate on Hezbollah with an all-out attack. If Syria and Hezbollah is defeated militarily, then Iran would be threatened with a joint Israel-US led war possibly with nuclear weapons especially if Hillary Clinton or most of the Republican front-runners were to become president. Iran is sure making Washington very nervous.

The Currency War on Oil producing countries: Iraq, Venezuela and Libya

Iraq, Venezuela and Libya tried to drop US dollars for oil trades but were met with resistance from Washington. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein (a former U.S. ally) decided he wanted to use Euros instead of US dollars for oil transactions. That was one of the main reasons that the Bush regime wanted to remove Saddam Hussein in the first place, not because of the fabricated “Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)” story published by the New York Times author Judith Miller which was the justification for the U.S. invasion of Iraq (codename ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’). The U.S. government and its big oil companies control world oil-markets with its dollar as the “fiat” international trading currency, but Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein defied the U.S. and it dollar supremacy by replacing it with the Euro. In 2006, Former Texas congressman Ron Paul explained Washington’s real motives behind their WMD lies against Iraq and the coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by the Bush regime concerning the US dollar before the U.S. House of Representatives:

In November 2000 Saddam Hussein demanded Euros for his oil. His arrogance was a threat to the dollar; his lack of any military might was never a threat. At the first cabinet meeting with the new administration in 2001, as reported by Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, the major topic was how we would get rid of Saddam Hussein– though there was no evidence whatsoever he posed a threat to us. This deep concern for Saddam Hussein surprised and shocked O’Neill.

It now is common knowledge that the immediate reaction of the administration after 9/11 revolved around how they could connect Saddam Hussein to the attacks, to justify an invasion and overthrow of his government. Even with no evidence of any connection to 9/11, or evidence of weapons of mass destruction, public and congressional support was generated through distortions and flat out misrepresentation of the facts to justify overthrowing Saddam Hussein

One of the main reasons of the invasion of Iraq was about Saddam Hussein’s goal to eliminate the US dollar and replacing it with the Euro for Iraq’s oil sales, but that did not stop there. Ron Paul also mentioned Venezuela under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez at the time:

In 2001, Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia spoke of Venezuela switching to the Euro for all their oil sales. Within a year there was a coup attempt against Chavez, reportedly with assistance from our CIA. After these attempts to nudge the Euro toward replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency were met with resistance, the sharp fall of the dollar against the Euro was reversed. These events may well have played a significant role in maintaining dollar dominance

Iran is a long term goal for regime change. However, with Russia and China in the picture, it seems very “less likely” to happen. Russia and China are major obstacles for the pentagon war planners. The US has hopes that the Islamic state can create more chaos in the region allowing ISIS to target Iran within its borders but that is a long shot. Iran is leading the charge in the Middle East to replace the US dollar with other currencies and Washington is panicking. Syria, Hezbollah and Russia stand in the way as the US dollar loses its dominance. Washington’s call for war will get louder as more countries around the world seek to replace the US dollar. Washington wants to make Iran an example to let the world knows what happens if you abandon their currency, just like they did to Iraq, Venezuela and even Libya. Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi’s planned a “single African currency” linked to gold that would have dethroned US dollars and the Euro for African oil trades and possibly other transactions which was the reason why Washington ordered US-NATO forces to remove Gaddafi from power.

Will Washington force Iran to use its dollars for its oil transactions with the threat of war? With major powers backing the Islamic republic, it will be an impossible task to accomplish. As more countries demand less US dollars, a decline in the “exchange value” will result in a weaker dollar. Usually when countries demand a certain currency on the foreign exchange markets, the value of that particular currency increases. So will the US war machine attempt to force countries such as Iran to use its dollars for its oil trades to keep the dollar afloat? There is a “currency war” currently being waged by Iran and Russia. Who can blame them? Washington started this war with its economic sanctions on Iran and Russia because they do not comply with its demands as Imperial power that makes all the rules for the world to follow. Now Iran and Russia will finish it by dropping the US dollars for their business transactions, a solution long overdue.

 

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Timothy Alexander Guzman is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on political, economic, media and historical spheres. He has been published in www.Globalresearch.ca, The Progressive Mind, European Union Examiner, News Beacon Ireland, www.whatreallyhappened.com, EIN News and a number of other alternative news sites. He is a graduate of Hunter College in New York City.