Tehran, Iran – Senior officials in Iran are once again speaking out publicly about controversial anti-money and anti-terrorist financing legislation that appears to be linked to the fate of the country’s nuclear deal.
In a televised speech on Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani called for the ratification of two remaining bills to finalize Iran’s action plan by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The FATF is a global intergovernmental body charged with developing standards for combating money laundering and “terrorist finance”.
Iran and North Korea are the only two countries on his blacklist.
“Every country has accepted it [FATF standards]. Right and left. West and east. If it’s something bad, why did everyone go for it? “said the president.
“This is not a joke.” This is the right of the people. This is human life. This is tied to everyone’s pockets. “
Rouhani also said that while the adoption of the two bills may not solve the problems of the whole country, but opposing officials should consider how to explain to the people how not to consolidation of the countryside.
On Tuesday, more than 200 members of Iran’s conservative parliament signed a statement criticizing FATF legislation, saying it would “end the puzzle of Western and US sanctions”.
As part of Iran’s action plan with the FATF, first agreed more than six years ago, the country had to finalize four pieces of legislation.
Two were agreed by a reformist-heavy parliament and agreed by the powerful constitutional scrutiny body, the Guardian Council, in 2018 and 2019.
However, disagreements between parliament and the council over the remaining two bills meant they were handed over to the conciliation body, the Expediency Council, where they remained dormant for about two years. .
Nuclear contract binding
In December 2020, as hopes for a 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers soared, Rouhani wrote a letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who agreed to revive talks on Council bills Expediency.
The council should have announced its final vote on the legislation before the end of the Iranian calendar year on March 20, but Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Wednesday that the vote was postponed after the New Year holidays.
Rezaei told a news conference that the council had been asked to approve the legislation by the government because Iran should be in a good position with the FATF against the imminent lifting of U.S. sanctions until the renew their international banking links.
“Some of the men [at the council] said: ‘Give us a date, when will the sanctions be lifted? If he is inside [April], then we will wait until then and talk about the bills here and give a vote of approval when they lift the sanctions, ‘”he said.
Current U.S. sanctions on Iran imposed by former U.S. President Donald Trump have been unilaterally withdrawn from the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.
President Joe Biden has vowed to back the agreement, acknowledging that Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign has failed, but so far he has refused to lift any sanctions.
Rezaei, former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said he personally believes the council will reject the bills.
Mohammad Reza Bahonar, a member of the Expediency Council who wants to pass the bills, said on Tuesday that he believes the bills would be “more likely” to be ratified, but with changes based on conditions Iran.
“The problem we have with this is that some movements in the world are considered terrorism that we recognize as freedom fighters,” he said, expressing Iran’s support for movements in Palestine against Israel and in Yemen fighting a Saudi-led coalition.