UAE's 'No Support, No Dollar'

A viral April 19 video claimed the United Arab Emirates told Washington, in effect, back us politically or expect more oil trade to move out of dollars. (youtube.com) The clip came from CNN-News18, which said the warning was tied to China-linked oil trade and pressure on U.S. policy in West Asia. Bloomberg, citing a Wall Street Journal report, separately said the United Arab Emirates had begun talks with the United States about a financial backstop if the Iran war deepened its economic strain. (youtube.com) (bloomberg.com) Bloomberg reported that central bank governor Khaled Mohamed Balama raised a possible currency swap line with Federal Reserve and Treasury officials in Washington last week. Newsmax, summarizing the same Wall Street Journal reporting, said Emirati officials warned that, in a worst-case scenario, the country could be pushed to use other currencies, including China’s yuan, for some transactions. (bloomberg.com) (newsmax.com) Oil is usually priced and settled in dollars, so a shift into yuan would change the currency used to pay, clear and hold export revenue. The International Monetary Fund’s COFER database still shows the dollar as the largest reserve currency, even after methodological changes published from 2025Q3. (data.imf.org) The United Arab Emirates sits at the center of that question because Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is a major exporter and China is one of its key customers. ADNOC says it is expanding strategic cooperation across the energy value chain in China, and Emirates and Chinese officials signed 24 agreements in Beijing on April 13 to deepen trade and investment ties after non-oil trade passed $100 billion in 2025. (adnoc.ae) (gulfnews.com) The currency question is also colliding with sanctions policy. Reuters reported on April 17 that Indian refiners were settling rare Iranian oil cargoes in Chinese yuan through ICICI Bank under a temporary U.S. sanctions waiver, showing that yuan settlement is already being used in parts of the region’s oil trade. (usnews.com) At the same time, Washington has been tightening pressure on Tehran. Reuters reported on April 15 that the United States warned buyers of Iranian oil they could face sanctions, and on April 14 that Washington would not renew a 30-day waiver on Iranian oil at sea. (msn.com 1) (msn.com 2) The United Arab Emirates still has strong reasons to stay anchored to the dollar. The dirham is pegged to the U.S. currency, ADNOC announced agreements in May 2025 that could enable $60 billion of U.S. investment in UAE energy projects, and OPEC said on March 1 that the UAE was among the producers adjusting output under the group’s latest plan. (adnoc.ae) (opec.org) No public decree from Abu Dhabi says the UAE is abandoning dollar oil sales, and the most concrete reporting points instead to contingency talks during a regional crisis. The sharper message in the video is that Gulf oil, dollar settlement, China demand and U.S. security support are now being discussed in the same sentence. (youtube.com) (bloomberg.com)