Iran Lauds FATF’s Deadline Extension as Diplomatic Victory

In a statement on Friday, Qassemi expressed satisfaction that a majority of FATF members were not influenced by political pressure of the US, which with the help of a few of its allies, the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia, was misusing its temporary presidency over the body to return Iran to the body’s blacklist.

However, Qassemi censured parts of the FATF statement, which said Iran’s measures have not met full expectations.

The spokesman said FATF should avoid political motivations and just pay attention to technical dimensions.

“According to technical reports sent to the body, most of technical measures requested under Iran’s action plan have been completely implemented and the remaining will go into effect after legal process related to the three [parliamentary] bills were completed,” he said.

“Hence, the FATF meeting was expected to take into account these realities and avoid using some negative phrases in the statement,” he said.

Qassemi condemned the insistence of the US delegation that the body must refuse to extend the deadline for Iran, and said the approach results from the extremist and delusional policy of the White House.

The spokesman said the FATF basis for evaluating countries’ conditions has so far been their technical measures and the group’s decisions must not be influenced by political pressures of a country that has grown accustomed to bullying and brutality in the international scene.

“The US has shown it is not a trustworthy member of the international community as it takes unilateral moves to destroy all achievements of multilateralism. FATF members should consider this important issue when making future decisions,” he said.

The FATF announced Friday it once again extends the deadline for Iran to complete reforms to meet conditions for getting out of the body’s black list.

FATF had previously given Tehran until October to bring its laws against money-laundering and funding of terrorism up to its guidelines.

Iran’s parliament approved some new measures earlier this month to amend Iran’s law in compliance with FATF standards.

But not all the required pieces of legislation have so far gone into effect, as parliamentary enactments need to be approved by the Guardian Council before being signed into law.