In a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin, recently published on the website of the US Department of State, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Iran to ratify the two remaining FATF-related treaties, namely the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT) and the UN Palermo Convention on Transnational Organized Crime. He said Iran must ratify the treaties “without delay” and “without reservation.”
He accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism, saying this is the reason the country has chosen not to ratify the treaties.
Meanwhile, voices inside Iran have been divided on joining the Financial Action Task Force. While the Parliament and the Rouhani administration have been more or less in favor of joining the FATF, the Guardian Council and Expediency Council have their own concerns.
A member of the Expediency Council, Hossein Mozaffar, has recently said that “the kind of transparency that FATF seeks in the Palermo bill is to find out our ways for bypassing sanctions. For a country under sanctions, it is a very unwise move to show our hands and let them see and block all our strategies.”
He also said that those in favor of joining the FATF had failed to come up with a strong argument as to why joining the body would be economically beneficial to Iran.
He added that the final verdict will be cast on the two bills before the FATF’s June deadline runs out. At the same time, he maintained that the overwhelming majority of the Expediency Council is against ratifying the bills.
- source : Mehrnews
