OREANDA-NEWS. The United States intends to block the allocation of a $ 5 billion loan to Iran by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which it requested to combat a new type of coronavirus. This was announced on Tuesday evening by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources in the US Presidential Administration Donald Trump.

According to them, the Iranian government has enough funds to deal with the spread of the virus, and if the IMF finances Tehran, then it does not use the money to fight the virus, but to help the economy in that part that has suffered from US sanctions, or will direct funds to fund its allies in the Middle East.

The Wall Street Journal notes that Washington, being the IMF's largest shareholder, largely determines whether the funds requested by the country will be allocated by the fund, but other members of the organization have the opportunity to disagree with the United States if many of them take a different decision and the number of votes cast for it outweigh the number of votes against.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said March 12 that Tehran has requested $ 5 billion in assistance from the IMF to counter the spread of coronavirus in the country.