The United States 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 reported citing senior officials in the Trump administration.
According to the sources, 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.
As the IMF's largest shareholder, the U.S. 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.
