Iran denies failure in World Bank payments

Iran denied on Sunday a failure in the World Bank payments and blamed the Western sanctions which " caused problems for the money transfer," official IRNA news agency reported. Iran's Deputy Minister of Economy Behrouz Alishiri said that a recent statement by the World Bank on Iran's payment delay is "non- technical" and "totally wrong," according to the report. World Bank has blamed Iran for failure to reimburse the installments of loan for the last six months and put the country on the list of those failing to honor their payment commitments, he said, adding that the statement, if not being regarded as politicized, should be regarded as "non-professional, non- technical and totally wrong." Western reports said out of "697 million U.S. dollars" which Iran owed to the World Bank at the end of June, 2013, "79 million U.S. dollars was overdue." The Thursday statement by the bank will discredit the country for the new loans from the World Bank and other creditors. In the past, Iran had received various loans from the bank and paid all its installments in due time without any delay, said Alishiri, adding that "Iran has reimbursed the installments of its (latest) debits to the World Bank through an advisor bank in due time but the advisor bank has refrained from transferring the sum, creating problem for Iran." The Iranian official said on April 21, 2013, Iran's commerce minister met with the vice president of the World Bank to resolve the issue, adding that after the talks, the financial manager of the bank declared it had got permission from U.S. officials for transfer of Iranian payments, but to no avail. The United States and its allies have revved up sanctions against Iran's energy and financial sectors to force the Islamic republic to stop its uranium enrichment activities.