Countries cannot rely on the currency of a nation with multi-trillion-dollar debt, Sergey Shoigu has said
Washington’s abuse of the dollar is a major selling point for BRICS, which is fostering the transition to a multipolar world order, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu has said.
America’s control over the global reserve currency and the financial system based on the dollar has increasingly been unnerving other nations, as the US government has leveraged it to damage other countries with sanctions and asset seizures, he claimed.
”It is [now] obvious for everyone that whatever savings they have may end up in someone else’s pocket rather than their own,” Shoigu said in an interview published by Russian media on Tuesday.
Governments therefore “realize that they need to go away from the US-dependent financial system. There is a need for a structure that would not be so monopolized and dependent on US domestic laws,” he added. The current system “cannot stand.”
Russia was targeted by the US over the Ukraine crisis, when some $300 billion worth of its sovereign assets held in Western jurisdictions was frozen. This instance alone shows that “the world should move away from the dollar,” Shoigu said, but it is just one of many.
He cited the seizure of Libyan funds during the NATO military intervention to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. There is also ongoing exploitation of Syrian oil reserves by shady US-linked firms in Kurdish-controlled areas of the country, Shoigu said. Those firms sell “stolen” crude, while Damascus is starved for fuel due to American sanctions, he continued, adding that Western nations are “occasionally acting like vulgar thieves.”
The US federal debt, which surpassed $35 trillion earlier this year, is another reason to worry about the reliability of international finances, Shoigu claimed. Such problems push more nations into seeking BRICS membership, he said, because “here we don’t have some hegemonic power towering over everyone and dictating terms, as this happens in the EU and NATO.”
READ MORE: Washington wants Ukraine’s resources – US Senator
Shoigu also suggested that the excessive global role of the US is detrimental for policy making by other nations. Foreign governments have to tailor their decisions to projected outcomes of US presidential elections and occasionally have to turn on a dime, when some surprise happens, such as Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, he explained.
https://www.rt.com/russia/603758-us-monopoly-global-finances/
Ecuadorian voters have rejected a proposal to permit the return of US military bases, according to preliminary referendum results.
Ecuadorians went to the ballot box on Sunday to decide whether US forces should again operate from local facilities. The nation had banned foreign bases in 2008 amid concerns over sovereignty.
With three-quarters of ballots counted, about 60% voted ‘no’ to the plan advanced by President Daniel Noboa, a close ally of US President Donald Trump and a supporter of US military operations in the Caribbean and near Venezuela.
The result blocks any US effort to return to the Manta airbase on the Pacific coast, which once served as a platform for Washington’s regional military operations.
The referendum also asked voters whether to end public funding for political parties, reduce the number of lawmakers, and create an elected body to draft a constitution.....more below
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The Jewish state says the incident in southern Lebanon was due to poor weather conditions, with no casualties reported.
UN peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon have accused Israel of firing on one of their patrols, criticizing the country for its “aggressive behavior.” Israel has acknowledged that the incident occurred, but said it was not intentional and was due to poor weather conditions.
In a statement on Sunday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired on personnel from a Merkava tank.
It called the incident “a serious violation” of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon that ended the 2006 war, stressing that it was not the first attack of this kind. “Yet again, we call on the IDF to cease any aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers, who are working to support the return to the stability that both Israel and Lebanon say they seek.”.... more below
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Iran’s largest credit institution has gone into administration amid the government’s continued push to reform the country’s banking and financial system.
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said on Sunday that it had appointed a team of three administrators to restructure the Melal Credit Institution after the lender accumulated a loss of 650 trillion rials ($590 million)
Head of CBI’s regulatory and oversight department Farshad Mohammadpour said the Melal Institution had an asset–liability mismatch of 450 trillion rials and its capital adequacy ratio was minus 41%.
Mohammadpour said that administrators are expected to restructure the Melal Institution in the next six months, mainly by selling off its non-banking assets, properties and affiliated enterprises to pay down its debts.
CBI’s decision about Melal Institution comes three weeks after the lender declared Bank Ayandeh, one of Iran's largest private banks, insolvent and transferred its assets and staff to the state-run Bank ...
