Kirk: Force World Bank to cut off Iran

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.