Congressional rejection of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran could threaten the dollar’s status as a global reserve currency, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.
“If we turn around and nix the deal and then tell them, you’re going to have to obey our rules and sanctions anyway, that is a recipe, very quickly … for the American dollar to cease to be the reserve currency of the world,” Kerry said at an event organized by Thomson Reuters in New York.
Kerry argued that it would be impossible to renegotiate the deal, which gives Iran relief from international sanctions in exchange for putting its nuclear program on ice for 10 years, because U.S. credibility with other countries would be shot.
“There’s a big bloc out there, folks, that doesn’t just sit around waiting to be told what to do by the United States,” he said.
But Kerry didn’t explain exactly how rejecting the deal would hurt the dollar’s status as a global reserve currency, and an afternoon briefing at the State Department didn’t shed any further light on how that might happen.
“I would have to check on that,” said State spokesman Mark Toner when asked to explain further.
