The regime in Tehran has a long-documented history of using aid for illicit purposes.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA medical aid worker sets up and installs a bed at a shopping mall which has been turned into a centre to receive patients suffering from the coronavirus disease, in Tehran, Iran, April 4, 2020.(photo credit: WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY)/ALI KHARA VIA REUTERS)
The US State Department’s spokeswoman announced on Tuesday that America opposes an International Monetary Fund loan to the Islamic Republic of Iran.Morgan Ortagus, the US spokeswoman, told BBC Persian that the Trump administration is worried that the funds will be sent to Iran’s proxies and not benefit the Iranian people.On Sunday, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani, tweeted: “US opposition to granting Iran’s requested facilities from IMF to provide items needed to deal with coronavirus is a real case of crimes against humanity.”Iran’s rulers have requested $5 billion. Iran’s regime has a long documented history of using humanitarian aid for illicit purposes.The US-based non-partisan think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) wrote in a recent publication: "In 2018, the Treasury Department exposed that the regime used an Iranian medical and pharmaceutical company to facilitate illicit payments to Russia in a scheme to help Syria finance purchases of oil. The oil-for-terror network involved Central Bank of Iran officials facilitating the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars to support oil shipments to Assad.”The FDD publication added that “The putative medical and pharmaceutical company at the center of the scheme was Tadbir Kish Medical and Pharmaceutical Company, which was used to cover up these payments as part of an offsetting scheme ultimately funding Hezbollah and Hamas through the Quds Force.”The US designated the Quds Force a foreign terrorist entity. According to the US State Department, Iran's clerical regime is the worst state-sponsor of terrorism.FDD noted that “The United States has no sanctions targeting humanitarian goods. On the contrary, such goods are specifically exempted from all Iran sanctions.”A Swiss-run humanitarian channel for Iran’s regime is in place to transfer medicine and other life-saving goods to Tehran. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has refused to accept US humanitarian aid.FDD wrote that “The Iranian population suffering from COVID-19 deserves much needed medical assistance but that should be funded though reliable NGOs, bypassing the regime and not through the transfer of funds to the regime, which has ample financial resources estimated at over $300 billion for economic stimulus and humanitarian aid.”
