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COVID-19: Iran Urges IMF To Move On Emergency Loan; Turkmenistan Holds Mass Exercise Events

The global death toll from the coronavirus is more than 82,000 with over 1.4 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness.

Here’s a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL’s broadcast countries.

Iran

Iranian President Hassan Rohani has urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide Tehran with a multibillion-dollar emergency loan it requested to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

“We are a member of the IMF…. There should be no discrimination in giving loans,” Rohani said in a televised cabinet meeting on April 8.

Last month, the Central Bank of Iran asked the IMF for $5 billion from its Rapid Financing Initiative to help to fight the pandemic in one of the hardest-hit countries in the world.

An IMF official was quoted as saying the Washington-based lender was in dialogue with Iranian officials over the request.

Iran has not received assistance from the IMF since a “standby credit” issued between 1960 and 1962, according to the fund’s data.

The outbreak has officially infected more than 62,500 people and killed over 3,800 in the country, though many experts and critics of Tehran have said the actual figures may be much higher due to underreporting by officials.

The epidemic has further damaged Iran’s economy, already battered by U.S. sanctions that were reimposed after Washington in 2018 withdrew from a landmark deal between Tehran and world powers to curb the country’s nuclear program.

Tehran, as well as several countries, the United Nations, some U.S. lawmakers, and human rights groups have urged the United States to ease the sanctions to help Iran respond more effectively to the virus.

U.S. President Donald Trump has offered some humanitarian assistance, but Iranian officials have rejected the offer, saying Washington should instead lift the sanctions, which Rohani on April 8 equated to “economic and medical terrorism.”

Medicines and medical equipment are technically exempt from the U.S. sanctions but purchases are frequently blocked by the unwillingness of banks to process transactions for fear of incurring large penalties in the United States.

In one of the few instances of aid, Britain, France, and Germany used a special trading mechanism for the first time on March 31 to send medical supplies to Iran in a way that does not violate the sanctions.

The three countries sent supplies via Instex, the mechanism set up more than a year ago to allow legitimate humanitarian trade with Iran.

On April 7, Iran’s parliament reconvened for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced it to close and rejected an emergency bill calling for a one-month nationwide lockdown.

More than two-thirds of the legislature’s 290 members gathered in the absence of speaker Ali Larijani, who tested positive for the virus last week.

During the session, deputy speaker Massud Pezeshkian criticized the Rohani administration for “not taking the outbreak seriously.”

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan has organized a series of mass exercise events to mark World Health Day, even as countries across the globe impose physical-distancing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The gas-rich Central Asian country claims to have no registered cases of the virus and has sought to silence any discussion about the pandemic.

Authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, who was shown on state television riding a horse and biking with a small group of officials on April 7, only mentioned the coronavirus for the first time last week.

State media reported that 3,500 cyclists in the capital, Ashgabat, and 7,000 others around the country bicycled together on April 7 “to demonstrate their commitment to the principles of a healthy lifestyle.”

In other events, state media reported sports competitions in parks, gymnastics and acrobatic demonstrations, and judo, boxing and wrestling competitions.

RFE/RL correspondents in the capital reported last week that people talking in public about the pandemic were being quickly whisked away by plainclothes agents.

Turkmenistan’s government sealed off Ashgabat on March 20 without any public announcement by authorities or state media about the reasons for the closure.

Traffic between the country’s provinces has been restricted as well, with checkpoints set up on highways.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, Reuters, and AFP
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