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According To Iran News, Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei said the two remaining FATF-related bills, namely the Palermo and CFT, are still being reviewed by the Council’s members.

He said the issue was still being reviewed at the Expediency Council and he could not disclose any information about the case at the moment.

“I will talk about the FATF-related bills in the future and after the necessary studies have been conducted. The issue is still being addressed by the Council,” he added.

Asked when the Council would reach a conclusion on the bills, Rezaei said “I don’t know yet. I will talk about it after the issue has been discussed.”

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering body, has given Iran a final deadline of February 2020 to implement a set of four bills to meet the standards set by the watchdog.

Last October, Iran’s Parliament passed the four bills, but only two of them have so far gone into effect.

The Expediency Council is in charge of deciding the fate of the two other bills, namely one on Iran’s accession to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, commonly known in Iran as ‘Palermo’, and the other one a bill amending Iran’s Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) law.

Those against the endorsement of the FATF-related bills say the move would impose further restrictions on Iran’s economic relations while the country is under US severe sanctions.

“It is not in the country’s best interest to make its dealings transparent to institutions such as FATF,” Mesbahi Moghadam, a member of the Expediency Council had said.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – A member of the Expediency Council, the body in charge of deciding on FATF-related bills, said on Sunday that the two remaining bills, namely the Palermo and CFT, are still being evaluated by the Council.

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The council will consider national interests when examining the bills, the body said in a statement on Wednesday, IRNA reported.

It also said Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not made any written or oral remarks to show his approval of the FATF-related bills.

It is expected that governmental authorities avoid misrepresenting the Leader’s remarks, it added.

Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary of the council, made similar remarks in a tweet on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Jahangiri urged the Expediency Council to ratify the FATF-related bills as soon as possible.

“Given that the FATF and CFT bills were passed in the meeting of heads of government branches and also confirmed by the Supreme Leader, the Expediency Council would better ratify these bills,” he suggested.

“It would be better if the people were informed about all affairs, including talks within the administration, Majlis, Guardian Council and Expediency Council,” the vice president noted.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday it had given Iran a final deadline of February 2020 to tighten its laws against money laundering in compliance with the global watchdog’s financial standards.

“If before February 2020, Iran does not enact the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions in line with the FATF Standards, then the FATF will fully lift the suspension of counter-measures and call on its members and urge all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures, in line with recommendation 19,” the FATF said in a statement, according to Reuters.

“The FATF expects Iran to proceed swiftly in the reform path to ensure that it addresses all of the remaining items by completing and implementing the necessary Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing reforms.”

One of the actions Iran is required to take to appease the FATF is joining the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which is also called the Palermo Convention, a 2000 United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime.

The other action is to ratify the CFT, the convention combatting financing of terrorism.

On October 7, 2018, the parliament voted in favor of the CFT. However, the oversight Guardian Council rejected the bill by finding 22 faults with it, which put the fate of the bill on the hands of the Expediency Council.

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Referring to his statements, in an interview with Mehr News Agency, Seyyed Mostafa Mirsalim said lifting sanctions is not enough and the US also have to pay for the damages it has inflicted on Iran, if there is going to be negotiation between Iran and the US.

Blocking Iran’s oil export, suspention many contracts with foreign companies due to US secondary sanctions which caused harm and damage to many industries in Iran, as well as preventing the import of essential commodities that have caused many humanitarian problems are among the damages that have been inflicted on Iran for the past year and a half by the US, he mentioned.

After US withdrawal from the deal in May 2018, Trump administration imposed several sanctions against Iran.

Recently, President of Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said that despite the comments made by Brian h. Hook, Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy Advisor to the US Secretary of State and other US administration officials who have claimed for several times that the United Sates sanctions regime doesn’t include food, medicine, medical devices, and agricultural products, the path to the arrival of specific drugs to Iran remains closed and Iran faces problems in importing of medicines and medical equipment due to the closure of currency accounts of Iran and the lack of money transfer.

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Song Tao and his accompanying delegation are making the visit upon the official invitation of Iran’s Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei.

The Chinese delegation is slated to hold meetings with Expediency Council’s head and secretary, Parliament speaker and a host of other high-ranking officials of the country during their stay in Tehran.

Enhancing strategic cooperation between the two countries and also discussing the latest developments in the world and in the region has been named as the main aims of this visit.

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The former IRGC chief added, “If Britain doesn’t return the Iranian tanker, the duty of responsible [Iranian] bodies is to seize a British oil tanker in a retaliatory measure.”

The British Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar on Thursday for trying to take oil to Syria allegedly in violation of EU sanctions, a dramatic step that could escalate tensions between Iran and the West.

Hours later, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Britain’s ambassador to Tehran, Rob Macaire, for the act.

“Following the illegal seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar by British Royal Marines, the British envoy to Tehran has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday.

Acting Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell has said Gibraltar detained the supertanker Grace 1 after a request by the United States to Britain.

He added that Spain was looking into the seizure of the ship and how it may affect Spanish sovereignty as it appears to have happened in Spanish waters.

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The statement lauds Iran for the progress of its legislative efforts including the establishment of a cash declaration regime in 2017, enactment of amendments to its Counter-Terrorist Financing Act in 2018, and enactment of amendments to its Anti-Money Laundering Act in 2019.

The global watchdog, however, has called on Iran to ratify bills on the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions, which have passed Parliament, but are not yet in force.

“Once the remaining legislation comes fully into force, the FATF will review this alongside the enacted legislation to determine whether the measures contained therein address Iran’s Action Plan, in line with the FATF standards,” the statement notes.

“If by October 2019, Iran does not enact the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions in line with the FATF Standards, then the FATF will require introducing enhanced relevant reporting mechanisms or systematic reporting of financial transactions; and increased external audit requirements for financial groups with respect to any of their branches and subsidiaries located in Iran. The FATF also expects Iran to continue to progress with enabling regulations and other amendments,” the statement adds.

Iran will remain on the FATF Public Statement until the full Action Plan has been completed, says FATF.

Voices inside Iran are divided on the ratification of the two remaining controversial bills. While the Parliament and the Rouhani administration have been more or less in favor of joining the FATF by ratifying the CFT and Palermo bills, the Guardian Council and Expediency Council have their own concerns.

A member of the Expediency Council, Hossein Mozaffar, 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.

According to him, the final verdict will be cast on the two bills before the FATF’s June deadline runs out.

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During the meeting, the questions and uncertainties of the EC members regarding the ratification of the two treaties were discussed.

Representatives from the  Central Bank, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vice Presidency for Legal Affairs, and Ministry of Intelligence were also called upon to share their expert opinions on the matter.

It was also decided to submit 11 questions on the issue to the presidency office and request an official response to them from the Rouhani administration.

The EC joint commission will continue the sessions until a final verdict is reached.

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