• 小莱卡
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    5 months ago

    I am not optimistic about SA, they have an absurd amount of investment on the USD thanks to the petrodollar, so they can’t decouple from the US, their future is closely linked (unless they were okay with losing all the investment).

    This doesn’t mean that SA has to side with the US on everything, they’re in an unique spot. They hold the most important card in the game: the petrodollar.

    Dropping the petrodollar policy would hurt both the US and SA, but mostly the US. So they can leverage this policy with the US to get away with better deals with China or anyone really, since IMO the US no longer has the military capability to enforce the policy.

    • الأرض ستبقى عربيةOP
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      5 months ago

      I really hope Saudi Arabia starts selling petrol in yuans. It has been discussed for a few years now. As it is now, being tied to the dollar means the US exports its inflation to us. Though since we are open to Chinese products, that just means we buy more affordable and increasingly higher quality Chinese products instead.

      • 小莱卡
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        5 months ago

        They are in an unique spot that i believe they could get away with it. The US not being able to military enforce the petrodollar policy (aka invade SA if they drop it) means that SA can leverage it to get away with these deals.

        Imagine selling petrol to China in yuans, and using them to buy planes (like the other article you posted) and EVs, solar panels, HSR, etc… the yuan has a future full of posibilities, the USD only offers overvalued military equipment and fucking bonds.

        • MarxMadness
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          5 months ago

          The US not being able to military enforce the petrodollar policy (aka invade SA if they drop it)

          Why couldn’t the U.S. invade? All it would take is a few week of media coverage on the country’s links to 9/11, pretending it’s some new finding.

          • 小莱卡
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            5 months ago

            They don’t have the resources to do it, they couldn’t do anything to Yemen lol.

          • GlueBear [they/them]
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            5 months ago

            They’d get a repeat of Iraq if they did.

            Before the invasion, the Iraqi regime under Saddam was pretty pro American interests. After the invasion, the country fell to Iran and is now a major proxy for Iranian interests in the region.

            Saudi Arabia will be a repeat of that, but on a significantly worse scale on account of Yemen being right there

            • MarxMadness
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              5 months ago

              A good outcome is not a prerequisite for a U.S. invasion. I agree it would hurt the empire in the long term, but you could have said the same thing in the early 00s about Iraq and Afghanistan, yet here we are.

          • SadArtemis🏳️‍⚧️
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            5 months ago

            You’ve described the excuse the US could find to invade (and the US can, and always has, found an excuse, even if they had to pull it out of their ass), but not that it would be a good idea (which it wouldn’t be).

            Frankly, I think given time, unless the Saudis can receive security guarantees- from Russia, China, perhaps even India and/or Pakistan, and from arrangements with the other Arab states- the US will try its hand at doing exactly as you describe, FWIW. If they can’t control the Sauds, they’ll try to overthrow the Sauds. And if they can’t overthrow the Sauds, or can’t regain control over the region or at least turn it into a destabilized hell-on-earth they can extract oil from, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration or remotely out of the question to say that they likely will try to do the “next best thing” and strike their oilfields, and destroy much of the world’s oil in the process.

            But it will be a disaster. A humanitarian disaster (not that the US would remotely care), an ecological disaster (ditto), it would possibly cause famine and deprivation across the globe and even across the west (though for the US regime, these facts probably sound more like positives). It would possibly set the entire Islamic world aflame, with the US either invading or bombing the nation which holds their two holiest sites- hell, it would set the entire world aflame, considering the Saudi’s strategic position and resources. It would create a fresh new hotbed of unending resistance and resentment in the region, and likely across the entire globe.

            But you know what? I think you’re not wrong, exactly, as said earlier. I think they really will push it, when push comes to shove. I think these maniacs would even go so far as to instigate nuclear war, with bioweapons thrown into the mix (because it’s the AmeriKKKans, of course they would) if they think they can get away with it, or that they can rule over the ashes.

        • GlueBear [they/them]
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          5 months ago

          Wouldn’t that cause the value of the yuan to increase, making Chinese goods less attractive on the market?

          • 小莱卡
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            5 months ago

            would depend on the balance of trade between these countries, since SA provides something as crucial as petrol i don’t think it would reach a trade deficit with China.