‘US Exit of Nuclear Deal Makes Tehran Hesitant Regarding FATF’

“The US exit from JCPOA has etched a bad experience in all Iranians’ minds, and they do not want to see this happen again by the approval of the FATF bills,” Ahmad Bakhshayesh told Iran Diplomacy.

The JCPOA is the official name of the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015. The US pulled out the historic deal in May 2018, in spite of international organisations’ and allies’ attesting to Iran’s compliance to the deal.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is a global body of wealthy nations meant to combat “money laundering” and “terrorism financing”.

Bakhshayesh said Iran should not approve all the bills set by the FATF at once.

“We should take a lesson from the JCPOA and not give many concessions to the West,” he noted.

The former lawmaker said Tehran should sign the FATF-related bills after the European countries, who have tried to persuade Iran to stay in the deal after the US withdrawal, first “implement their long-promised financial mechanism” to facilitate trade with Iran.

He said Iran should only join the FATF-related bills after it enjoys some benefits from the EU financial mechanism, known as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

The SPV is a kind of clearing house that could be used to help match Iranian oil and gas exports against purchases of EU goods in an effective barter arrangement circumventing US sanctions, based on global use of the dollar for oil sales.