Team Obama Invoke Threat to Dollar in Pitching Iran Deal

Obama, Kerry warn that rejecting nuclear deal would lead to financial complications

U.S. officials rarely muse publicly about threats to the dollar’s elite global status. But the Obama administration is invoking that concern in a novel way in urging Congress not to block its nuclear agreement with Iran.

John Kerry warned that walking away from the Iran deal 

would create financial complications that would diminish 

the dollar’s status as an international reserve currency. 

Photo: andrew gombert/European Pressphoto Agency

In recent days, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry warned that walking away from the deal between Iran and six world powers and reimposing sanctions would create financial complications that would diminish the dollar’s status as an international reserve currency.

The argument is part of an attempt by the administration to press the case that Washington can’t return to the sanctions regime without seriously damaging its credibility with its partners, who are already committed to the nuclear accord.

Sanctions have worked in part because they blocked major countries from helping the Iranian government sell its oil. In 2012, the U.S. threatened to blacklist from the U.S. financial system any institution that helped Iran evade sanctions, and global banks have faced billions of dollars in penalties.

Attempting to reinstate such sanctions on Russia, China or Western allies that negotiated with the U.S. “is a recipe very quickly…for the American dollar to cease to be the reserve currency of the world, which is already bubbling out there,” Mr. Kerry said Tuesday in New York.

The comments are also notable because U.S. policy makers typically defer to the Treasury secretary on matters relating to the dollar. Mr. Kerry said the Treasury Department would provide additional analysis on the financial implications of walking away from the Iran deal.

Read the rest of the story HERE and follow a link to a related story below:

Ignore John Kerry's Fear-Mongering About The Dollar And Iran

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