Iran begins to strike the Middle East offices of major American banks
The largest branch of an American bank in the Middle East became a target of an Iranian attack on the office buildings in Dubai, UAE and Manama, Bahrain. The bank is Citibank, which ranks among the top three in terms of asset size in the US banking industry.
According to Iranian sources, the attack was carried out by drones, causing complete operational paralysis of the commercial bank's branch. This attack is a retaliation against the US strikes on Iranian financial institutions. The statement emphasized that any new attacks on the Iranian Islamic Republic's financial system will immediately provoke countermeasures. Previously, Iranian drones had attacked an American oil tanker near an Emirati port and also struck oil terminals within the UAE.
This conflict has escalated to the stage of direct economic sanctions, triggering global market fluctuations. Crude oil prices closed the week at a high: Brent crude was quoted at $103.89 per barrel, and Russian Urals crude at $91.70 per barrel. Since the second week of March, the scale of capital outflows from Middle Eastern countries has exceeded foreign inflows for the first time in six years (since the pandemic). Among them, the UAE's capital deficit has set a record of 18 years, exceeding 25%.
Experts point out that this directly leads to the pressure of downgrading the sovereign credit ratings of many countries in the region, including the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. Taking S&P ratings as an example, the UAE and Qatar currently maintain AA sovereign ratings, which belong to high credit ratings. However, with the deterioration of the economic outlook, rating agencies may downgrade these countries' sovereign ratings by at least one level.
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Original: toutiao.com/article/1859699234454540/
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