IMF Says Still Assessing Iran's Funding Request

Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters
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IMF Says Still Assessing Iran's Funding Request

Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters

The International Monetary Fund is still assessing Iran's request for $5 billion in emergency financing in a process which is taking time partly because of the IMF's limited engagement with Tehran in recent times, Reuters quoted a senior IMF official as saying.

Iran, the Middle East country worst affected by the new coronavirus outbreak, approached the IMF last month to request the $5 billion from its Rapid Financing Initiative, an emergency program that aids countries faced with sudden shocks such as natural disasters.

It was Iran's first request for IMF aid since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"We have received a request for assistance, and since we have had limited engagement with Iran in recent times, the process of obtaining the information we require to assess the request is taking time," Jihad Azour, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, told Reuters.

Iran has been struggling to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But the Tehran government is also concerned that measures to limit public activities could wreck an economy already strained by US sanctions reimposed since 2018, when Washington exited an agreement to lift them in return for curbs to Iran's nuclear program.

Some businesses - including many shops, factories, and workshops - resumed operations across the country in recent days.

As of April 14, Iran's death toll from COVID-19 had reached 4,683 and it had 74,877 cases of infected people.

Tehran has blamed the United States and its "maximum pressure" policy for restricting its ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus pandemic.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last week the IMF would be guilty of discrimination if it withholds the money for the country, which is a member of the IMF.

"Any member of the fund has the same rights of access to the IMF financing and resources subject to the fund's rules and approval by the director board," Azour said.

In its 2020 Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia, published on Wednesday, the IMF said Iran's economy is expected to contract by 6% this year, against a 7.6% contraction in 2019.

Inflation - which spiked after the United States reimposed sanctions - is expected to hit 34.2% this year, down from a peak of 41.1% last year.

Iran, a leading member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is also being hit by a plunge in oil prices. Brent crude futures traded at $29.60 a barrel on Tuesday; Iran would need an oil price of $389.4 per barrel to balance its budget this year, according to the IMF.

The IMF forecast the Iranian government's fiscal deficit to widen to 9.9% of gross domestic product this year from a 5.7% deficit last year.



Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
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Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Australia will not commit troops in advance to any conflict, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Sunday, responding to a report that the Pentagon has pressed its ally to clarify what role it would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan.

Australia prioritizes its sovereignty and "we don't discuss hypotheticals", Conroy said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance but by the government of the day," he said.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Elbridge Colby, the US under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pressing Australian and Japanese officials on what they would do in a Taiwan conflict, although the US does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan.

Colby posted on X that the Department of Defense is implementing President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda of restoring deterrence, which includes "urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense".

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking in Shanghai at the start of a six-day visit to China that is likely to focus on security and trade, said Canberra did not want any change to the status quo on Taiwan.

Conroy said Australia was concerned about China's military buildup of nuclear and conventional forces, and wants a balanced Indo-Pacific region where no country dominates. He said China was seeking a military base in the Pacific, which was not in Australia's interest, Reuters reported.

'GOAL IS NO WAR'

Talisman Sabre, Australia's largest war-fighting exercise with the United States, opened on Sunday on Sydney Harbour and will involve 40,000 troops from 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, India, Britain, France and Canada.

Conroy said China's navy might be watching the exercise to collect information, as it had done in the past.

The war games will span thousands of kilometers from Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island to the Coral Sea on Australia's east coast, in a rehearsal of joint war fighting, said Vice Admiral Justin Jones, chief of joint operations for the Australian Defense Force.

The air, sea, land and space exercises over two weeks will "test our ability to move our forces into the north of Australia and operate from Australia", Jones told reporters.

"I will leave it to China to interpret what 19 friends, allies and partners wanting to operate together in the region means to them. But for me... it is nations that are in search of a common aspiration for peace, stability, a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.

US Army Lieutenant General Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general for the Pacific, said Talisman Sabre would improve the readiness of militaries to respond together and was "a deterrent mechanism because our ultimate goal is no war".

"If we could do all this alone and we could go fast, but because we want to go far, we have to do it together and that is important because of the instability that is resident in the region," Vowell said.

The United States is Australia's major security ally. Although Australia does not permit foreign bases, the US military is expanding its rotational presence and fuel stores on Australian bases, which from 2027 will have US Virginia submarines at port in Western Australia.