Letter From Members Of Civil Society To The IMF Executive Board Members: Do Not Provide Direct Funding To The Government Of Iran; Help The Iranian People Instead
Re: Consideration of an Emergency Financing Loan for the Islamic Republic of Iran
Dear Member of the Executive Board of the IMF:
We are writing this letter to you regarding a request for emergency funding by the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the amount of $5 billion to ostensibly subsidize the management of the COVID-19 epidemic in the country. We learned from a March 12, 2020 press conference by the IMF that this request is being reviewed according to organizational policies and procedures. As you are aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has particularly hit Iran hard and taken a tremendous toll on the Iranian people, resulting in a significant number of lives lost. As of the date of this writing, estimates for the number of people who have contracted the virus exceeds one million. An additional 10,000 are likely to have succumbed to the disease, including many in the healthcare profession.
We are members of civil society and political and human rights activists of Iranian national origin and other ethnonational descents. We have been monitoring and analyzing the developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as more broadly and over many years the economic, governance, and human rights situation in Iran. We are deeply concerned about the well-being of our loved ones and the people of Iran and particularly troubled by the approach of the government of Iran in dealing with this pandemic. We have strong reservations with respect to the provision of direct financial support by the IMF to the government of Iran and respectfully urge the IMF and the international community to focus their efforts and goodwill on helping the Iranian people through direct and well-targeted provisions of medical supplies and technical capacities.
The impact of COVID-19 in Iran
The human cost of the pandemic has been brutal, with over 3000 officially confirmed deaths related to COVID-19. This figure is believed by theWorld Health Organization (WHO) and other authorities in epidemiology to be a gross underestimation. In February, Iran became the first epicenter outside East Asia, as COVID-19 spread quickly in the face of government’s early denial and subsequent reluctance to quarantine the origin cities. On February 19th, Iran recognized the first two confirmed cases of positive COVID-19 (only upon their death) in the city of Qom, indicating that the virus had already spread widely in the country. The deluge of additional cases in the subsequent days substantiated this reality. By February 28th, more than ten countries also traced their incipient cases back to Iran. Since then, the medical community has waged a heroic war to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The background on request for financing, medical supply needs, and sanctions
The government of Iran is seeking a loan of about $5 billion from the IMF emergency financing funds to cover for urgent foreign currency payment needs that it claims to face. This request, in our view, is not justified and is based on false pretenses. Iran holds high levels of foreign reserve assets by the central bank, that according to the central bank publication, stood at about $117 billion in December 2019. This amount covers more than 14 months of the country’s imports (as also confirmed in IMF 2018 report of Iran), a level generally considered very favorably relative to international standards.
Re: Consideration of an Emergency Financing Loan for the Islamic Republic of Iran
Dear Member of the Executive Board of the IMF:
We are writing this letter to you regarding a request for emergency funding by the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the amount of $5 billion to ostensibly subsidize the management of the COVID-19 epidemic in the country. We learned from a March 12, 2020 press conference by the IMF that this request is being reviewed according to organizational policies and procedures. As you are aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has particularly hit Iran hard and taken a tremendous toll on the Iranian people, resulting in a significant number of lives lost. As of the date of this writing, estimates for the number of people who have contracted the virus exceeds one million. An additional 10,000 are likely to have succumbed to the disease, including many in the healthcare profession.
We are members of civil society and political and human rights activists of Iranian national origin and other ethnonational descents. We have been monitoring and analyzing the developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as more broadly and over many years the economic, governance, and human rights situation in Iran. We are deeply concerned about the well-being of our loved ones and the people of Iran and particularly troubled by the approach of the government of Iran in dealing with this pandemic. We have strong reservations with respect to the provision of direct financial support by the IMF to the government of Iran and respectfully urge the IMF and the international community to focus their efforts and goodwill on helping the Iranian people through direct and well-targeted provisions of medical supplies and technical capacities.
The impact of COVID-19 in Iran
The human cost of the pandemic has been brutal, with over 3000 officially confirmed deaths related to COVID-19. This figure is believed by theWorld Health Organization (WHO) and other authorities in epidemiology to be a gross underestimation. In February, Iran became the first epicenter outside East Asia, as COVID-19 spread quickly in the face of government’s early denial and subsequent reluctance to quarantine the origin cities. On February 19th, Iran recognized the first two confirmed cases of positive COVID-19 (only upon their death) in the city of Qom, indicating that the virus had already spread widely in the country. The deluge of additional cases in the subsequent days substantiated this reality. By February 28th, more than ten countries also traced their incipient cases back to Iran. Since then, the medical community has waged a heroic war to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The background on request for financing, medical supply needs, and sanctions
The government of Iran is seeking a loan of about $5 billion from the IMF emergency financing funds to cover for urgent foreign currency payment needs that it claims to face. This request, in our view, is not justified and is based on false pretenses. Iran holds high levels of foreign reserve assets by the central bank, that according to the central bank publication, stood at about $117 billion in December 2019. This amount covers more than 14 months of the country’s imports (as also confirmed in IMF 2018 report of Iran), a level generally considered very favorably relative to international standards.
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