No Need to Join Int’l Treaties that Are against National Interests: Iran Leader

“Major world powers develop international treaties based on their own interests,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a Wednesday meeting with Iranian lawmakers in Tehran.

“Member states of these conventions have no role in their development,” he said, adding that the conventions are mostly ratified by the allies of world powers or the states intimidated by them.

“Then if an independent country like Iran refuses to join the treaty, they start criticizing it, saying how come you don’t accept it while 150 others have joined?”

“Some treaties have useful articles and there’s no problem with joining them. But when we know a treaty or convention has problems and we are not sure where it will take us to, we shouldn’t ratify it just for its positive aspects,” the Leader added.

The bills proposed by the government to be ratified in the Parliament should not be against the country’s national interests, he went on to say.

“The Iranian Parliament itself can pass laws against money laundering and terrorism,” he added.

The Leader’s comments came after the Iranian lawmakers, earlier this month, agreed that debates on the country’s accession to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) be put on hold for two months.

They decided that dealing with the FATF issue would be shelved until results of negotiations with Europe on saving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) become clear.

Established in 1989, the Financial Action Task Force is an inter-governmental body with the purpose of setting standards and promoting 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.