Economic war on the U.S.? Iran, Venezuela join forces

Alijazeera ^ | 19 February 2006 | Alijazeera

[Racehorse]

Iran and Venezuela joined forces to undermine the U.S. dollar.

Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that his country's plans to move its foreign-exchange holdings out of the dollar into the euro, calling for the creation of a South American central bank designed to hold in euros all the foreign-exchange holdings of the participating countries.

On the other hand, Iran started since 2003 demanding oil payment in euros, not dollars, although the oil itself was still priced in dollars. The Islamic Republic has already announced plans of opening the Iranian Oil Bourse in March, challenging by that the NYMEX (the New York Mercantile Exchange) and IPE (London's International Petroleum Exchange).

Iranian and Venezuelan lawmakers have recently signed a document condemning nuclear weapons, yet stressing all nations’ right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

During a visit he paid recently to the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Iranian Parliament speaker Ghulam Ali Haddad stated that the U.S. persistent rejection to recognise Iran’s right to pursue nuclear technology to be used for civilian purposes was "only a pretext."

"They are worried that we want to be independent," Hadad Adel said.

[. . .]

But what did the Iranian diplomat mean by saying that the U.S. is "worried that we want to be independent" Iran is already an independent and not an occupied country- He didn’t mean the military occupation. . . . Mr Adel didn’t mean the military occupation, but becoming independent of the U.S. dollar.

[. . .]

By joining forces in a move expected to deal a major blow to the U.S. economy, Iran and Venezuela are encouraging and creating a golden opportunity for other states to shift foreign-exchange holdings out of dollars and into euros or other currencies.

[Christopher Lincoln]

Mind you, I don't say there are not tough times coming economically; I think there are. But the governments of Iran and Venezuela are not the cause of this, and will not profit from it - very much the opposite.