It seemed like big news, and many wondered why the mainstream media had seemingly ignored it. Turns out, there was a very good reason.

Earlier this week, reports circulating widely on social-media platforms like X offered up a shocking proclamation: A 50-year-old agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia requiring that the latter price its crude-oil exports in U.S. dollars had expired on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia’s 50-year petrodollar agreement with the US expired on Sunday, June 9, 2024, giving Saudi Arabia the freedom to sell oil in various currencies. Saudi Arabia’s decision not to renew its contract allows for the sale of oil and goods in multiple currencies, like the Chinese RMB, Euros, Yen and Yuan. This move is anticipated to speed up the use of currencies other than the US dollar in global trade.

The financial markets are bracing for disruption now that Saudi Arabia decided not to renew its 50-year petrodollar partnership with the United States, MSN reported.

This opens the door for Saudi Arabia to sell oil and other goods — instead of exclusively in the U.S. dollar — in multiple other currencies, including the Chinese renminbi, and in euros, yen, and digital currencies such as bitcoin.

Saudi Arabia’s shift to other currencies is expected to hasten the global movement away from the dollar.

Dollarization, or in the case of some Eastern European countries euroization, is an economic occurrence when foreign currency is used in parallel with the domestic currency. There are various degrees of dollarization/euroization. The reasons for this phenomenon are country-specific, but in most cases, the root cause is the instability of the domestic currency.

As President Joe Biden prepares to fight for reelection this November across a contentious battleground of U.S. states, the White House also finds itself vying for influence among several increasingly critical players on the world stage, among them a long-standing partner in the midst of groundbreaking changes in its policies at home and abroad.

For more than two decades, through two wars and domestic upheaval, the idea that al-Qaeda acted alone on 9/11 has been the basis of U.S. policy. A blue-ribbon commission concluded that Osama bin Laden had pioneered a new kind of terrorist group—combining superior technological know-how, extensive resources, and a worldwide network so well coordinated that it could carry out operations of unprecedented magnitude. This vanguard of jihad, it seemed, was the first nonstate actor that rivaled nation-states in the damage it could wreak.

The Biden administration appears to be nearing a Middle East peace deal with Saudi Arabia as several developments over the weekend could change dynamics in the region.

Saudi Arabia and the United States are finalizing the details of a landmark deal to strengthen bilateral trade and defense – but an agreement will not be reached if the kingdom and Israel do not establish diplomatic relations, US officials said.