Why Iran’s Most Dangerous Weapon in This War Isn’t a Missile - It’s the Yuan

European Business Magazine

Part 1

A senior Iranian official has told CNN that Tehran is considering allowing a limited number of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz — but only if cargo is traded in Chinese yuan, not US dollars. The condition, if formalised, would represent the most significant challenge to the petrodollar system in its fifty-two-year history, striking at the financial architecture that underpins American global power rather than at US military assets.

Fourteen days into the war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February, the strategic picture has shifted in ways that no oil price chart yet reflects. While markets have focused on Brent crude’s surge above $100 a barrel and the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding across the Persian Gulf region, a single sentence attributed to a senior Iranian official on Friday may prove more consequential than any of the preceding military exchanges.

Iran is considering allowing a limited number of oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz on the condition that the cargo is traded in Chinese yuan, a senior Iranian official told CNN. The official described the potential move as part of Tehran’s plan to manage the controlled reopening of the strategic waterway, which has been effectively closed since March 1 following US-Israeli attacks on Iran. 

The financial implications deserve more attention than they have so far received.

Source, links:

https://europeanbusinessmagazine.com/business/iran-has-just-fired-the-most-dangerous-shot-of-this-war-and-it-wasnt-a-missile/