Tehran (AFP)
Iranian President Hassan Rohani on Wednesday urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to grant his country, among those most affected by the new coronavirus, an urgent loan of five billion dollars which it had requested to fight against the pandemic.
"I urge all international organizations to assume their responsibilities," said Rohani in the Council of Ministers.
"We are a member of the IMF (...). If there were to be discrimination between Iran and others for the granting of credits, neither we nor the opinion in general would tolerate that", a- he said again in televised remarks.
Iran had announced on March 12 that it had appealed to the responsibility of the IMF, to which, in a very exceptional case, Tehran said it had asked for help in the face of the Covid-19.
Tehran has no longer received IMF assistance from a loan from which Iran benefited between 1960 and 1962, that is, before the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979, according to Fund data.
"Our central bank has requested immediate access" to the IMF's rapid financing facility (IFR), Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter on March 12.
According to the IMF website, the IFR "provides rapid financial assistance to all member countries that are in urgent need of it".
Iran says the new coronavirus has killed more than 3,800 people and reached more than 62,500 across the country.
But, abroad, some wonder about the figures published by the Iranian authorities, which they suspect to be underestimated.
"If they don't meet their obligations in this difficult situation, the world will judge them differently," President Rohani said on Wednesday of the financial institution.
© 2020 AFP