Iran Says FATF Ratification Depends on Trump’s Behaviour

He said these two bills are currently put aside at the council and the members do not see any reason to rush to ratify these two bills, but they would be studied at the ripe time.

In an interview with ILNA, Tavakoli noted that “when we say we do not see any reason to rush, it means that it’s not on the agenda.”

He also warned of the dangers of ratifying these bills saying that the enemy is pushing for their approval, but when they do not comply with their commitments, there is no need to hurry.

In response to a question that public opinion may say the adoption of these bills will help improve livelihoods, Tavakoli underlined there is no trust in the bills because they may make the living conditions of people even more difficult.

“If we would be decisive, the life of people will get better. The government’s recent move against the United States forced them to back off because the government had a tough reaction. Our latest experience shows that a strong response improves the situation. Our experience has shown it since the 1953 coup. If we stand firm, they will back off, otherwise they won’t draw back,” underlined Tavakoli.

The Expediency Council addressed the ratification of the two controversial bills on Iran’s accession to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) last week.

Iran has been requested to ratify the Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Palermo conventions as part of the requirements to join the global anti-money laundering watchdog.

The FATF on Friday said Iran had until October to meet international standards against money-laundering and terror financing.

It said that it was for now keeping counter-measures against Iran suspended with the exception for a call to all countries to increase supervisory examination of Iranian banks’ branches and subsidiaries, Reuters reported.

If by October Iran had not met international norms, the FATF said it would require scrutiny of transactions with Iran and tougher external audits of financial firms operating in Iran.

FATF Statement ‘Alarming’

In an interview with IRNA on Sunday, Iranian Vice-President for Legal Affairs Laya Joneydi expressed concern about the FATF’s statement, saying that the announcement of further actions in the future is alarming.

“Unfortunately, we are getting back step by step to the initial point which should not be allowed to. It is expected that the Expediency Council will finalise the studies of the two bills sooner in order to prevent any further action being taken,” she underlined.

Joneydi went on to say that it would have been better if this problem could be solved before we were faced with this issue. In that case our international banking relationships and capacities would have not been damaged further.

The Iranian vice president noted that everyone should note that this is a national interest matter and part of the rights of the people and citizens.

“Facilitating of economic relations and exchanges is the right of the people to be preserved at least to safeguard their livelihoods,” she concluded.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) introduces itself as an inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions.

The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

The FATF is therefore a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas.