Iran o Kina mot US$ ett svar på USAs maktkultur!

[Benjie]

by Jerome R. Corsi
Global Research, April 12, 2007

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... cleId=5370


While the world press has focused on Iran's plans to move ahead with nriching uranium, Tehran continues to wage economic war against the
U.S. dollar behind the scenes.

Tehran has reached a decision to end all oil sales in dollars, according
to statements by Iran's central bank governor, Ehrabhim Sheibany, in
Kuala Lumpur at the end of last month.

Zhuhai Zhenrong Trading, a Chinese state-run company that buys 240,000
barrels of oil per day from Iran, approximately 10 percent of Iran's 2.2
million barrels per day total output, has confirmed a shift to the euro
for its Iranian oil purchases.

About 60 percent of Iran's oil income is currently in non-dollar
currencies, according to Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, who is responsible for
international affairs for National Iranian Oil.

Even Japanese refiners who buy some 550,000 barrels of oil a day from
Iran have indicated their willingness to buy Iran's oil in yen.

China, which buys approximately 12 percent of its crude oil supply from
Iran, signed last year a long-term $100 billion deal with Iran to
develop Iran's giant Yadvaran oil field. Estimates indicate China could
draw 150,000 barrels of oil from the Yadvaran field for the next 25
years, assuring Iran's position as one of the major suppliers of oil to
China for decades to come.

One possibility is that China may begin paying Iran for oil in yuans.

Meanwhile, China which now holds $1 trillion in foreign reserve
holdings, announced March 20 it will no longer accumulate foreign
exchange reserves.

This is more bad news for the dollar, since approximately 70 percent of
China's $1 trillion in foreign reserve holdings are held in U.S. dollar
assets.

About half of China's foreign exchange U.S. assets are invested in U.S.
treasuries, which are vital to financing the continuing U.S. federal
budget deficits.

The recent push by Iran to demand payment for Iranian oil in currencies
other than the dollar marks a move away from a previous announcement
that Tehran planned to open an Iranian oil bourse in March 2006,
designed to quote oil prices in the euro.

Iran has yet to open an Iranian oil bourse, but demanding payment for
Iranian oil in currencies other than the dollar is seen by many experts
as a more direct attack on the dollar, especially if the Iranian
decision backs a worldwide move away from using the dollar as the
underpinning of world foreign exchange reserves.

Iran's central bank governor Sheibany also confirmed Iran is cutting
U.S. dollar reserves to less than 20 percent of its total foreign
reserve currency holdings. Iran plans to manage its foreign reserve
currencies from oil sales in a basket of 20 different currencies.

The move by both Iran and China to hold fewer dollars in their foreign
exchange reserve reflects a desire to diversify foreign exchange reserve
portfolios amid concerns the dollar will continue to lose value versus
the euro.

The dollar has lost 9 percent of its value against the euro in the last
year and is down 35 percent against the euro in the last five years.

WND previously reported the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein virtually
signed his death warrant when he obtained the United Nations' permission
to hold his Oil for Food foreign exchange reserves in the euro.