A congressional appropriator proposed linking U.S. funding for the World Bank to the lender’s funding for Iran. “I will offer legislation requiring the Secretary of Treasury to reduce the U.S. contribution to the bank in any year by the same amount as the Bank’s disbursements to Iran in the previous year,” Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said in a June 14 speech to the American Enterprise Institute. “Maybe then the Board will get the message that the World Bank’s mission is not well-served by operating projects in countries officially condemned by the U.N. Security Council.” Kirk, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives foreign operations appropriations subcommittee and a former World Bank staffer, says that the bank is currently funding nine projects in Iran totaling $1.36 billion. He also proposes that the bank backs energy efficiency projects around the globe that would help unhook China from its energy dependency on Iranian oil.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
