Dual Monetary Fund: No "Rebel" Aid to Washington!

At a time when the spread of the Coronavirus has accelerated, Kristalina Georgieva, Director of the International Monetary Fund, announced that countries affected by the virus will receive support through the rapid financing tool. She asserted, as usual, most Western officials, that she was very concerned about the conditions in low-income and most vulnerable countries. But these feelings are quickly repressed once the affected countries are "rebellious" against the American will; then the assumed borders are absent, and the peoples and governments become in a single trench "not worthy of help"

Many countries on the US sanctions list are in dire need of financing their health efforts to contain the spread of the Coronavirus, including Russia, Iran, Venezuela and others. But the "White House" will stands in the way of saving millions of threatened people. The International Monetary Fund, which announced the provision of "rapid financing" to needy countries, is governed by its various criteria and the recommendations of the United States of America. This is the policy of the "Monetary Fund", which watches Iran, Venezuela and other countries struggle with "live flesh" to try to protect its people, suffers from weak capabilities due to the American sanctions, and refuses to help them ... simply because Washington "ordered" that.

Venezuela Tops the List

"The Perfect Storm in Venezuela," the "Hill" website titled an article that the arrival of "Corona" in Venezuela at the height of the oil crisis, provides the most appropriate conditions for "stifling the regime of Nicholas Maduro". The foregoing summarizes the official American vision, which previously did not provide the means of blockade possible to turn the Venezuelan people against Maduro.

Like many other countries, Venezuela has requested assistance with a $ 5 billion loan to tackle the virus, which has so far infected 42 people, without recording any deaths. The Fund rejected the request, explaining its decision of the suspicions surrounding the legitimacy of President Maduro in the eyes of the international community, and responded that he was "not in a position to study this request." Noting that the Fund's last assistance to Venezuela dates back to 2001.

The health system in Venezuela suffers from difficulties due to the stifling economic crisis fueled by the US sanctions, especially on the oil sector. In the absence of assistance from the IMF, Venezuela will have to wait for help from its allies, especially China, which has enjoyed a comparative advantage in the fight against Corona, given that Cuba extends aid to its neighbor and "friend" Caracas, through medical missions. But until financial assistance was obtained, Venezuela resorted to strict measures to implement the "social divergence" required to limit the spread of the virus, and it was not spared also from American media criticism. The Washington Post writes that the waves of refugees leaving Venezuela towards the neighborhood have increased their fear of "facing Corona inside Venezuela," speaking in a report to her about "running out of any methods of sterilization inside hospitals."

Iran is “An Opportunity Too”

Besides Venezuela, Iran has requested the help of the "Fund", which has not received aid from the IMF since it received a "support loan" between 1960 and 1962. The purge wanted to obtain "immediately" financial assistance that would allow it to cope with the virus that is widespread in the country. In its request, Iran relied, according to what Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter, on the pledge of the Fund’s director, Kristalina Georgieva, who assured that “the affected countries will be supported by the rapid financing tool.”

The answer to the Iranian request has not been released yet. But "contacts are still going on," according to the official Iranian news agency (IRNA). This waiting period did not prevent the Americans from imposing a new sanctions package, which included - among other things - five Iranian companies. All this, while the number of injured in Iran rose to nearly 20 thousand, and the deceased rose to just under 1500. As in Venezuela, American analysts rushed to confirm that this opportunity is appropriate for the US administration to implement the "policy of maximum pressure on the Iranian regime." In the absence of minimum ethical and humanitarian standards in the face of such a crisis, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo comes out and says that there are fundamental differences with Tehran and Pyongyang “but we have made vigorous efforts to provide better conditions for the Iranian and North Korean people.”

The impact of US sanctions on the Iranian health system is not urgent. Last year, Human Rights Watch warned that sanctions “severely restricted Iran's ability to finance humanitarian imports, including medicines, which caused serious difficulties for Iranians, and threatened their human right to On health care.

Faced with external and internal economic and political challenges and international isolation, Iran has sought to find alternative alliances, including cooperation with China and joining the "Belt and Road Initiative" that represented a new era of global competition between the United States and China. In contrast to the assertion of the Supreme Leader in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, regarding the spread of "Corona", that "there is evidence indicating the possibility of a biological attack," media outlets and research authorities have tried to link the Chinese presence inside Iran to the spread of the virus, albeit indirectly. For example, a report by the Wall Street newspaper pointed to the work of the Chinese railway engineering company in building a $ 2.7 billion high-speed railway, and Chinese workers involved in the renovation of a nuclear power plant across Qom, the city that saw the largest spread of the virus. Also remarkable was the talk of Sanam Fakil, deputy director of Middle East affairs at the Chatham House Institute, about Iran: "China was the main trading partner, but in this case it turned into a very dangerous bomb."

The Iranian Cabinet announced that 60 to 70% of Iranians will be infected with the virus. On the other hand, and a few days before the announcement, Sharif University of Technology conducted an important study on the results of the spread of the virus with the end of the peak phase, and presented 3 scenarios for the spread of the virus, relying on the Iranian commitment to the government's recommendations, most notably voluntary quarantine. The first scenario states that if people reduce their communication and mobility and adhere to the stone by 85%, this will lead to a decrease in prevalence by 65%, which means: 120 thousand injuries and 12 thousand deaths. The second scenario says that if the situation remains as it is, with 50% of the people in stone and the rest outside, this will eventually lead to 300 thousand injuries and 110 thousand deaths. Finally, the worst scenario: people do not adhere to the voluntary stone and do not adhere to the instructions and guidelines, and the authority relies on health capabilities only, this will lead to four million injured people and nearly 3.5 million deaths!

Punishing "China's Allies"?

Corona is frequently said to be a US biological war against China and its key partners in the Belt and Road plan. They are countries outside the American hegemony looking for alternatives in the international economy, and it seems that they are paying today the price of their opposition to Washington by preventing them from accessing aid, or even by lifting sanctions against it.

In isolation from whether it was really a "biological war" or not, all of the above confirms that the American path in imposing sanctions and preventing aid delivery continues, even in a battle that no longer knows borders. It is an indirect war, which only increases the number of victims. It can be said that countries pay (among what they pay) the price of economic cooperation with China, which started after the stage of containing the disease to extend a helping hand to Iran, Italy, Lebanon and the countries in need, of which Venezuela may be one. As for Europe, which Trump closed the door to, it was entered this time by Cuba and China, as part of medical missions and health aid in Italy, which took the title: “We unite us together by one sea.”