Iran’s central bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati has asked the International Monetary Fund to end its annoying bias and without "undue influence" of the United States respond to Iran's emergency loan request pending for a year.
Hemmati made the call during the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group held virtually on Thursday, the public relations office of the Central Bank of Iran reported Thursday.
In March 2020 Iran requested a $5-billion emergency loan from the international lender to help contain the Covid-19 disease and mitigate its effects on the economy.
After almost a year the request has been denied apparently under US pressure, especially during the term of the former president Donald Trump who was ousted late last year and is facing criminal charges.
"This is in stark contradiction with the mission of an international organization. We expect the IMF to swiftly respond to our legal request without discrimination and unwanted influence of political lobbies and US pressure," he told the conferees.
Recalling the US’ antagonistic influence in IMF's approach toward Iran, he pointed to an "administrative note of Oct 15, 2020" based on which "the executive manager of the US in the IMF was instructed to oppose Iran’s loan request.”
While nearly all countries are members of the IMF and have voting rights, the US is the largest shareholder and is said to has an “effective veto”over the lender of last resort's decisions.
Iran's ties with the US took a turn for the worst after Trump's highly controversial policies in 2018 when he withdrew from the historic nuclear deal Iran had signed with world powers and imposed a new economic blockade. The nearly permanent beleaguered Trump often vowed to cripple Iran's economy via his “maximum pressure” policy.
The fresh request for IMF loan is amid hopes for a change in US policy toward Tehran under the new President Joe Biden.
Hemmati said Iran had survived Trump’s inhuman but failed “maximum pressure” tactics and reached positive economic growth in the first nine months of the last fiscal year ending December 20.
Despite the growth, Hemmati said, Iran "needs financial resources like other developing countries, to move forward,” especially given the harm the coronavirus has inflicted on the economy.
The senior banker recalled that Iran has been hit the hardest by the pandemic in the MENAP region (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan) and was the first MENAP country to request the loan under the IMF's Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) program.
"The IMFso far has given $100 billion in loans to 85 countries," he said. "MENAP countries received close to 16 billion. Iran was among the first to apply for the emergency fund".
Afflicting close to 1.9 million Iranians, the coronavirus has claimed 62,800 lives, making it the hardest hit country in the Middle East. As with other economies across the globe, the deadly plague has taken a heavy toll on Iran's economy, already strained under the US sanctions.
