Step by Step Toward Nothingness

TEHRAN (Iran News) The spokesman for the Expediency Council, explaining Iran’s conditions for joining the CFT convention, said: “The Parliament, in order to pass the bill for Iran’s accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), had stipulated that Iran would comply with the provisions of this convention within the framework of its own Constitution. Then, the Expediency Council added another condition, stating that the Islamic Republic will comply with this convention within the framework of its Constitution and its domestic laws. Based on this, if any provision of the convention conflicts with the domestic laws of the Islamic Republic, the domestic laws will prevail. Therefore, with these two conditions, the Expediency Council agreed to Iran’s accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism.”

The spokesman emphasized that Iran is the greatest victim of terrorism in the world, stating: “No country in the world has paid as high a price as Iran in combating terrorism — an example being the 12-day war and the assassinations that took place in the heart of Tehran, such as the assassinations that began early in the Revolution, of which the Iranian nation has long been a victim, as well as the assassination of Martyr Haniyeh in Tehran last year.”

Referring to the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering Law in the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Parliament), he said: “The fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism was emphasized in this law. Therefore, the Islamic Republic has already begun taking steps and claims leadership in combating terrorism; now the other side must take the necessary steps and build trust.”

Dehnavi, speaking about the connection between Iran’s accession to the CFT and resolving Iran’s issue with the FATF, said: “The FATF had demanded more than 40 actions from Iran in order to remove it from the blacklist, and Iran’s accession to the CFT and the Palermo Convention were the final two steps in this regard. Therefore, in light of the recent resolutions of the Council, the relevant authorities must enter into negotiations with the FATF and follow up on the matter.”

Now, in light of this resolution, unfortunately not only has Axios’s prediction of our passive behavior come true, but we did not withdraw from the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), nor did we withdraw from the Cairo Agreement.

Even in a strange move — one that shows how far the Expediency Council is from grasping the most obvious realities of the world — we approved Iran’s membership in the CFT, so that the adversary could reach the conclusion that any political or diplomatic aggression would not go unanswered with passive reactions on our part.

Our retreating actions have always, with some delay, worked in favor of our enemies. This indicates that we are moving step by step toward nothingness — in other words, we do not bow to force… unless that force is overwhelmingly forceful.