from https://dcweekly.org/2022/03/15/saudi-a ... uan-media/:
a little bit of historic background on what happened in 1974 comes with this choice quote re saudi/US relationship: (from 2016)Top oil producer distances itself from petrodollar hegemony
Saudi Arabia is considering selling some of its oil to China in yuan rather than dollars, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, citing “active talks” between Riyadh and Beijing. Such a move could further marginalize the petrodollar paradigm that has controlled the global financial system for over half a century, placing the dollar’s status as the international reserve currency at risk.
China buys over a quarter of the oil exported by Saudi Arabia, meaning that denominating those deals in yuan would significantly boost the international profile of the Chinese currency. Currently, 80% of global oil sales are transacted in dollars, with the Saudis trading exclusively in the US currency since 1974 – when Washington offered Riyadh security guarantees in exchange for its loyalty to the petrodollar system.
In April, Saudi Arabia warned it would start selling as much as $750 billion in Treasuries and other assets if Congress passes a bill allowing the kingdom to be held liable in U.S. courts for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the New York Times. The threat comes amid a renewed push by presidential candidates and legislators from both the Democratic and Republican parties to declassify a 28-page section of a 2004 U.S. government report that is believed to detail possible Saudi connections to the attacks. The bill, which passed the Senate on May 17, is now in the House of Representatives. (15/19 hijackers were saudi... but lets bomb afghanistan and iraq back to the stone age! for 20 years!)
also, since i brought up iraq... we decided to go on that military misadventure conveniently after iraq decided it wanted to trade its oil in euros, instead of dollars. (link from 2003)
we also decided to bring our "democracy" via bombs to regime change gaddafi's libya after he proposed rejecting euros and dollars for oil and instead wanted to trade in his currency backed by gold reserves. (link from 2011) funny how we bring "democracy" when our petrodollar is threatened. coincidentally (jk, not) the "arab spring" occurred in countries that agreed to gaddafi's plan to move to a gold-backed currency. in that link, there's a quote by general wesley clark saying this has been planned since 2001... its so brazenly unbelievable saying the quiet part out loud i had to search for it, and it has been well scrubbed from the internet but not entirely.
other countries that switched from dollars to euros to trade oil were venezuela and iran... countries we have sanctioned the sh*t out of and threatened with regime change and war.
see a pattern? the USD is backed by oil, and by extension the US military. threaten the value of the USD by divorcing it from its backing by oil as the petrodollar and risk regime change and/or war. however, is saudi arabia too powerful to overthrow? we shall see...