Iran says US cannot veto its loan request to IMF

TEHRAN: An Iranian Vice President said the US cannot block Iran’s request for a 5 billion US dollars’ loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for fighting the novel coronavirus, state TV reported Wednesday.

Mohammad Nahavandian, Iran’s Vice President for economic affairs, said that “no country in the IMF has the right to veto” the loan requests, Xinhua news agency reported. “The IMF policy should be fair in assessing and approving loan requests” for its members, Nahavandian was quoted as saying. Many countries support Iran’s loan request, he said, adding that “when we face the outbreak of disease worldwide, it is important to understand each other.”

On March 12, it was announced that the Central Bank of Iran had asked the IMF for the 5 billion US dollars’ loan to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. On Sunday, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said that the recent US block of the loan by the IMF to Iran amounts to “crimes against humanity.”