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Trump Talks Up Credit Line for Iran, But No Sign of Imminent Policy Change

Michael Lipin

   WASHINGTON - This article originated in [1]VOA's Persian Service.

   VOA Persian's Katherine Ahn and White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman
   contributed.

   WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump's newly-stated openness to
   other nations offering Iran short-term loans to help it cope with
   punishing U.S. sanctions appears unlikely to become official U.S.
   policy anytime soon, analysts say.

   Trump made his first public expression of interest in the idea at a
   Monday news conference with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in
   Biarritz, France, where they had attended a G-7 summit.

   Macron had told the conference that Iran might accept Trump's demand to
   negotiate a new deal to curb its nuclear program and other perceived
   malign behaviors if world powers offer Tehran some form of "economic
   compensation '¦ in terms of lines of credit or reopening certain
   economic sectors."

   Asked by a reporter what he thought of that idea, Trump said Iran may
   need a "short-term letter of credit or loan '¦ to get them over a very
   rough patch."

   Iran has seen its inflation and unemployment soar since last year, when
   Trump began toughening U.S. sanctions as part of his pullout from a
   2015 deal in which world powers offered Iran sanctions relief in return
   for curbing its nuclear activities. Trump had rejected the deal as not
   tough enough on Iran.

   Trump told the reporters he was talking about a new "letter of credit"
   that would be offered to Iran by "numerous countries", excluding the
   U.S. He also said the potential loan program would be "secured by oil"
   and would be "paid back immediately and very quickly."

References

   1. https://ir.voanews.com/

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