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<title>A Primer on the Petrodollar and the War on Iran: The
Sixteenth Newsletter (2026)</title>
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A Primer on the Petrodollar and
the War on Iran: The Sixteenth
Newsletter (2026) </td>
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The illegal US-Israeli war on
Iran is exposing the
Oil-Dollar-Wall Street complex
that binds oil, financial
markets, and dollar power, with
consequences that reach far
beyond the region. </td>
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class="mcnTextContent"
style="padding: 0px 18px 9px;font-family: "Lato", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">
<br>
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style="font-family:lato,helvetica neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif">
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style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_141074"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141074"
class="size-large wp-image-141074 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Bahman-Mohasses-Iran-Untitled-1968-1024x675.jpg"
alt="" width="1024"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Bahman-Mohasses-Iran-Untitled-1968-1024x675.jpg 1024w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Bahman-Mohasses-Iran-Untitled-1968-300x198.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Bahman-Mohasses-Iran-Untitled-1968-768x506.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Bahman-Mohasses-Iran-Untitled-1968.jpg 1485w"
sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-141074" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Bahman
Mohasses (Iran), <em>Untitled</em>,
1968.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Dear
friends,</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Greetings
from the desk of <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=3bf257b5ee&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research</a>.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">As
you and I worry about how
war and inflation will
impact our families and
nations, bond traders are
fixated on the numbers on
their screens, calculating
what might happen to
seemingly arcane financial
instruments. Their job is to
protect the treasure of the
wealthy. For the past fifty
years, the relative
stability of the US dollar \u2013
above all as embodied in US
Treasury securities \u2013 has
rested in part on what is
called the \u2018petrodollar\u2019
system.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">When
petroleum prices are
relatively stable, the costs
of production and transport
are more predictable,
inflation is easier to
contain, and the prices of
bonds and other financial
assets are less likely to
swing wildly. In such
conditions, the wealthy can
multiply their paper wealth
with greater confidence.
Despite the existence of the
Organisation of the
Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) oil cartel
since 1960, the United
States continues to shape
the terms on which much of
the world\u2019s petroleum is
shipped, priced, and paid
for through its monopoly on
violence \u2013 by securing key
chokepoints and client
states with its bases and
fleets, and by using
sanctions to make oil sales
involving targeted states or
firms harder to insure,
finance, transport, and
settle financially. Coups
and wars also serve to
discipline states that seek
too much control over their
own resources or wish to
move outside this
dollar-centred order.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Inflation
\u2013 a sustained increase in
prices over a period of time
\u2013 is the enemy of financial
wealth, as it depreciates
the purchasing power of
financial assets. Since the
world economy is dependent
on energy derived from oil,
a rise in oil prices leads
to a rise in the price of
all other commodities and
the overall cost of
production and transport,
lowering the value of bonds
and other financial assets
that depend on low
inflation. Holders of
financial wealth therefore
tend to favour policies that
curb inflation through
austerity, restrictive
fiscal policy, and by
keeping the prices of oil \u2013
and therefore costs of
production, including wages
\u2013 down. The wealthy prefer
holding assets that are
stable relative to the
prices of commodities and
wages, which is why the US
dollar has been their
currency of preference for
holding wealth and
denominating major debts and
contracts. By offshoring
production to poorer
countries, the US has kept
wage levels and inflation
low at home and maintained
the purchasing power of the
US dollar. Although there
have been moments of crisis,
no other currency has come
close to replacing the
primacy of the US dollar,
since no other state
combines the military reach,
sanctions power, alliance
networks, and financial
depth required to command
the pricing of key
commodities like oil.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Bond
traders and their clients
are now worried that Iran
has already shown it can
restrict passage through the
Strait of Hormuz and thereby
challenge Washington\u2019s
ability to police the
movement of the oil that
transits that chokepoint \u2013
more than a fifth of the
world\u2019s total. In 2025,
roughly <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=faec674427&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">21
million barrels</a> a day
transited the strait at an
average price of <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=1ad9976402&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">$69
a barrel</a>, totalling
around $530 billion per
year. The <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=9edc76bea5&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">global
oil market</a> is priced
between $2\u20133 trillion per
year. A significant share of
this enormous hoard has
traditionally been
reinvested into US Treasury
bonds and dollar-based
financial assets. If
Washington can no longer
guarantee the terms under
which that oil moves and,
worse, if more of the
proceeds are going to be
held in non-dollar
currencies (such as the
Chinese yuan, which is the
currency of settlement that
Iran prefers), this will
provoke great turbulence in
the dollar-denominated bond
market which is the heart of
the global financial system.</p>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_141085"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141085"
class="size-large wp-image-141085 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zhao-Dewei-China-Night-Market-2015-1024x680.jpg"
alt="" width="1024"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zhao-Dewei-China-Night-Market-2015-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zhao-Dewei-China-Night-Market-2015-300x199.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zhao-Dewei-China-Night-Market-2015-768x510.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zhao-Dewei-China-Night-Market-2015-1536x1019.jpg 1536w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zhao-Dewei-China-Night-Market-2015.jpg 1808w"
sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-141085" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Zhao
Dewei / \u8d75\u5fb7\u4f1f (China), <em>Night
Market</em>, 2013.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Those
of you who are not
specialists on the subject
may be wondering: what
exactly is \u2018the bond
market\u2019? What is a
\u2018dollar-denominated bond\u2019?
What is the \u2018petrodollar\u2019,
or indeed, the \u2018petroyuan\u2019?
How does this entire system
work? Financial markets are
conceptually simple but
operationally complex, often
appearing opaque because
they are laden with jargon
and because specialised
actors seem to be
interpreting and acting on
the basis of abstract
expectations and relative
prices.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">This
newsletter is a primer on
some of the key concepts
needed to understand the
global financial system in
the context of the illegal
war waged by the United
States and Israel against
Iran. For the specialist,
the answers to the questions
that follow may be too
simplistic while for the
general reader, some
conceptual questions may not
be fully answered. That is
the limit of any primer, so
forgive us in advance.</p>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_141096"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141096"
class="size-large wp-image-141096 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mohammad-Ariyaei-Iran-Garden-of-Angels-2023-1024x810.jpg"
alt="" width="1024"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mohammad-Ariyaei-Iran-Garden-of-Angels-2023-1024x810.jpg 1024w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mohammad-Ariyaei-Iran-Garden-of-Angels-2023-300x237.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mohammad-Ariyaei-Iran-Garden-of-Angels-2023-768x608.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mohammad-Ariyaei-Iran-Garden-of-Angels-2023-1536x1216.jpg 1536w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Mohammad-Ariyaei-Iran-Garden-of-Angels-2023-2048x1621.jpg 2048w"
sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-141096" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Mohammad
Ariyaei (Iran), <em>Garden
of Angels</em>,
2023.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<ol>
<li
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong>What
are bonds?</strong>
Bonds are a category of
debt security \u2013 a tradable
financial instrument. A
bond is best understood as
a claim (or IOU) on a
future stream of payments.
When a bond is first
issued, it is a loan made
by an investor to a
borrower, usually a
government or corporation.
In return, the borrower
promises to pay interest
at regular intervals
(called coupons) and to
repay the original sum
(called the principal) at
a set future date (called
maturity). For example, if
a government issues a
10-year bond for $1,000 at
4% interest, the buyer
gives the government
$1,000 upfront, receives
$40 a year in interest,
and gets the $1,000 back
after ten years. If the
bondholder does not want
to wait until the end,
they can sell the bond to
someone else in a
secondary market. Put
simply: bonds are a form
of interest-bearing or
fictitious capital: legal
claims on future profits
or tax revenues rather
than ownership of
productive assets
themselves. In contrast to
bonds, stocks represent
ownership shares in a
company. Shareholders may
receive dividends (which
are not guaranteed), and
the value of their shares
may rise or fall according
to the company\u2019s
performance, potentially
becoming worthless. Bonds
typically offer lower
returns with lower risk
than stocks, while stocks
carry higher risk but
greater potential returns.</li>
<li
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong>What
is the bond market?</strong>
The bond market is where
governments and
corporations issue and
trade bonds. There is no
single marketplace, since
the bond market is
decentralised. Most bonds
are traded directly
between banks,
institutional investors,
and individual investors
through major financial
centres such as New York,
London, Tokyo, Hong Kong,
and Frankfurt. The dollar
bond market consists of
bonds issued in US dollars
\u2013 mainly US Treasuries and
other dollar-denominated
bonds issued by
corporations and by
governments outside the
United States. US
Treasuries are bonds
issued by the US
government. They include
bills (short-term debt
that mature in under a
year), notes (medium-term
debt that mature in two to
ten years), and bonds
(long-term debt that
mature in twenty or thirty
years). Central banks,
commercial banks, pension
funds, insurers,
corporations, and other
investors hold these bonds
because they are among the
most liquid and widely
accepted financial assets
in the world. A
significant share of
global dollar surpluses \u2013
including some oil-export
surpluses, which we will
get to \u2013 has historically
been recycled into these
bonds. This mechanism
helps finance the US
government\u2019s debt
(currently at <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=3af4f1689e&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">almost</a>
$39 trillion) through
purchases of US Treasuries
while reinforcing global
demand for the US dollar
as the world reserve
currency \u2013 the most
universally accepted
currency for invoicing
trade, settling payments,
and holding reserves and
wealth.</li>
</ol>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_141107"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141107"
class="size-full wp-image-141107 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Marcos-Grigorian-Iran-Dizy-Abqousht-3-1979.jpg"
alt="" width="671"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Marcos-Grigorian-Iran-Dizy-Abqousht-3-1979.jpg 671w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Marcos-Grigorian-Iran-Dizy-Abqousht-3-1979-288x300.jpg 288w"
sizes="auto, (max-width: 671px) 100vw, 671px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-141107" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Marcos
Grigorian (Iran), <em>Dizy
Abqousht #3</em>
(Traditional Iranian
Meal #3), 1979.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<ol start="3">
<li
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong>What
is the petrodollar
system?</strong> As
mentioned earlier, the
world oil market amounts
to about $2\u20133 trillion a
year. So, where do the
profits from all those oil
sales go? After the
1973\u20131974 oil shock, and
especially through the
arrangements Washington
built with Saudi Arabia
and other Gulf monarchies,
most global oil trade came
to be invoiced and settled
in dollars. This meant
that oil-importing
countries needed dollars
to buy oil, while
oil-exporting countries
accumulated large dollar
surpluses. Oil-exporting
states, central banks, and
sovereign funds then
reinvested a significant
share of those surpluses
into dollar-denominated
assets. This recycling of
oil revenues into
dollar-based financial
instruments links energy
markets to financial
markets, sustains demand
for dollar-denominated
bonds, helps keep US
borrowing costs lower than
they would otherwise be,
and reinforces the US
dollar\u2019s status as the
world reserve currency. A
key part of this process
has been the Eurodollar
market \u2013 the offshore
market in US dollars,
where dollars are
deposited and lent outside
the United States \u2013 which
helps channel oil
surpluses into global
financial markets. This
entire system could be
called the Oil-Dollar-Wall
Street complex.The United
States has weaponised the
petrodollar system to
sanction countries that do
not cooperate with US
foreign policy on
political grounds. The US
Treasury Department has
restricted targeted
countries from accessing
dollar-based finance,
forcing compliance with
US-dominated markets.
Countries that resist,
like Iran, have sought
alternatives to the dollar
oil trade; this is why
Iran has said that
countries that pay in
Chinese yuan can travel
safely through the Strait
of Hormuz. The
Oil-Dollar-Wall Street
complex sustains US power
(using sanctions) even as
it pushes countries to
pursue diversification,
risk management, and
alternative currency
arrangements.</li>
</ol>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_141118"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141118"
class="size-full wp-image-141118 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zahra-Zeinali-Iran-Sans-titre-5-2024.jpg"
alt="" width="745"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zahra-Zeinali-Iran-Sans-titre-5-2024.jpg 745w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Zahra-Zeinali-Iran-Sans-titre-5-2024-300x200.jpg 300w"
sizes="auto, (max-width: 745px) 100vw, 745px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-141118" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Zahra
Zeinali (Iran), <em>Untitled
#5</em>, 2024.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<ol start="4">
<li
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong>If
oil profits are no
longer held in dollars,
would this impact the
dollar bond market?</strong>
If oil revenues are no
longer held in
dollar-denominated assets,
global demand for dollar
assets \u2013 especially US
Treasury bonds \u2013 could
decline. This could reduce
foreign purchases of US
Treasuries, raise US
borrowing costs,
depreciate the value of
the US dollar, and weaken
the dollar\u2019s role as world
reserve currency. But this
would not be a simple or
immediate process. The
overall impact of such a
process would depend on
how quickly, and widely,
alternative currencies
replace dollar-based oil
trade. In the short term,
there will be disruption
rather than a smooth
transition or an immediate
collapse of dollar
dominance.</li>
</ol>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_141129"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141129"
class="size-large wp-image-141129 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Charles-Hossein-Zenderoudi-Iran-Zamin-Larzeh-1971-925x1024.jpg"
alt="" width="925"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Charles-Hossein-Zenderoudi-Iran-Zamin-Larzeh-1971-925x1024.jpg 925w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Charles-Hossein-Zenderoudi-Iran-Zamin-Larzeh-1971-271x300.jpg 271w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Charles-Hossein-Zenderoudi-Iran-Zamin-Larzeh-1971-768x851.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Charles-Hossein-Zenderoudi-Iran-Zamin-Larzeh-1971-1387x1536.jpg 1387w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Charles-Hossein-Zenderoudi-Iran-Zamin-Larzeh-1971-1849x2048.jpg 1849w"
sizes="auto, (max-width: 925px) 100vw, 925px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-141129" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Charles
Hossein Zenderoudi
(Iran), <em>Zamin
Larzeh</em>
(Earthquake), 1971.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<ol start="5">
<li
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><strong>What
is the petroyuan?</strong>
The petroyuan refers to
oil trade that is priced
in US dollars and settled
in Chinese yuan. It <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=afeb7e7342&e=d206d0a40d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;"
moz-do-not-send="true">emerged</a>
in 2018, when the Shanghai
International Energy
Exchange launched its
yuan-dominated crude oil
futures market. The
petroyuan is estimated to
be a small share \u2013 no more
than 5% \u2013 of global oil
trade. Despite the
emergence of the
petroyuan, it cannot
overtake the petrodollar
because the yuan is not
fully convertible. Due to
Chinese government
regulations, the yuan
cannot be freely exchanged
with other currencies at
market rates, limiting its
use in global
transactions. US financial
markets are more liquid \u2013
meaning dollar assets can
easily be converted into
cash \u2013 because of the
large deficit that the US
government runs to ensure
the flow of dollars to the
global economy. Entrenched
financial systems,
geopolitical alliances,
and global institutions
still favour the US
dollar, making large-scale
transition to a yuan-based
oil trade slow and
constrained. While many
Belt and Road Initiative
countries have adopted the
yuan in their
transactions, the Chinese
government is primarily
interested in using its
currency to support
domestic economic growth
and facilitate trade.
China is not interested in
providing a stable and
liquid store of wealth for
international financiers,
nor does it desire the
deindustrialisation and
domestic and international
polarisation that full
currency convertibility
would entail.</li>
</ol>
<div
class="single-post--content--media-block single-post--content--image"
style="text-align:center; margin:3em 0;">
<div id="attachment_141140"
class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141140"
class="size-large wp-image-141140 img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Iran-Darroudi-Iran-Eshgh-Khamoush-Shodeh-2008-1024x1018.jpg"
alt="" width="1024"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Iran-Darroudi-Iran-Eshgh-Khamoush-Shodeh-2008-1024x1018.jpg 1024w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Iran-Darroudi-Iran-Eshgh-Khamoush-Shodeh-2008-300x298.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Iran-Darroudi-Iran-Eshgh-Khamoush-Shodeh-2008-150x150.jpg 150w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Iran-Darroudi-Iran-Eshgh-Khamoush-Shodeh-2008-768x764.jpg 768w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Iran-Darroudi-Iran-Eshgh-Khamoush-Shodeh-2008-1536x1527.jpg 1536w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Iran-Darroudi-Iran-Eshgh-Khamoush-Shodeh-2008-2048x2036.jpg 2048w"
sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" border="0"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<p
id="caption-attachment-141140" class="wp-caption-text"
style="text-align: center;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;"><small>Iran
Darroudi (Iran), <em>Eshgh
Khamoush Shodeh</em>
(Love Has Been
Silenced), 2008.</small></p>
</div>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We
hope the above primer has
helped explain some of the
more arcane parts of the
present conjuncture. These
concepts and processes are
important to understand
because Iran has linked
yuan-denominated oil trade
to safe passage through the
Strait of Hormuz as a
leverage against the United
States. By controlling a
chokepoint carrying major
global oil flows, Iran can
bypass sanctions, undermine
the petrodollar system, and
strengthen ties with China.
While this may not in itself
destroy the petrodollar
system, it inflicts upon the
US a significant cost for
its unwillingness to come to
a grand bargain and end an
almost fifty-year conflict.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Warmly,</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Vijay</p>
</span> </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
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