Ehsan Khandozi Fails to Obtain Visa for IMF Meeting Attendance

The joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group is held twice annually with the attendance of governors of central banks and ministers of economy and finance from member states.

The spring meeting is typically held in late Farvardin and the autumn meeting is usually held in mid-Mehr in Washington, and every three years, one of the member states is designated as the host of the annual meeting.

The presence of banking and economic officials from countries at these meetings provides an appropriate opportunity to enhance banking and economic relations and cooperation through meetings between governors and other members of delegations from different countries.

This year, as usual, this joint meeting was held. However, visas were not issued to the Iranian government delegation for attending the autumn meeting of the World Bank and IMF and for entry into Washington. Due to Iran’s current situation and public calls for regime change, and the pressure imposed by the Islamic Republic regime on the people, as well as the non-acceptance of the Islamic government in Iran for membership in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to combat money laundering, many countries have sanctioned and prevented the entry of their government leaders. For this reason, when Ehsan Khandozi—the Minister of Economy and Finance—applied for a visa for the delegation to attend the joint meeting of the IMF and the World Bank Group, they announced that they could not issue a visa to the Islamic Republic delegation. This news was not permitted to be published due to national security reasons, in accordance with special guidelines, and was not published in any media outlets.

The Farsi Christian News Network has published this news for public clarity, and defers the verification of the report to supplementary reports.