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    Emil Lazarian
  • 5 years ago
    • Categories: 2020

US to block Iran’s $5 billion virus loan request

Panorama, Armenia
April 9 2020

The US plans to block Iran's requested $5 billion emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund for funding Tehran says it needs to fight its coronavirus crisis, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Senior officials in the Trump administration said Iran's government has billion-dollar accounts still at its disposal. If allowed to tap IMF financing, the officials said, Tehran would then be able to divert those or other funds to help its economy, which has been weakened by U.S. sanctions, or finance militants in the Middle East, rather than on containing the pandemic.

The IMF, which is facing urgent funding requests from scores of governments, said it is in talks with Tehran to determine its eligibility for an emergency loan.

The source reminds that as the IMF's largest shareholder, the US largely determines the fate of bailout requests, though technically IMF member countries could amass a majority of votes to approve Iran's loan even with U.S. opposition.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS