Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that “many” oil-rich U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have requested a financial backstop amid economic turbulence from the war with Iran.
Bessent’s comments go further than White House assertions to CNBC on Tuesday, where an official said the U.S. had not yet been formally asked to establish a currency swap line by the United Arab Emirates, only that there had been discussions about the topic.
Such a swap line would provide the UAE or other Gulf nations with liquidity in the U.S. dollar,
but comes loaded with political risk as U.S. consumers weather higher prices from the war for food, gas and other everyday purchases.
“Many of our Gulf allies have requested swap lines,” Bessent said. “Swap lines, whether it’s from the Federal Reserve or the Treasury, are to maintain order in the dollar funding markets and to prevent the sale of the U.S. assets in a disorderly way.”
