When asked about the actual date of the session, he said it is still undecided when the members would gather to cast their final verdict on the two controversial bills.

Earlier in March, Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said the majority of the Council’s members are against joining the UN anti-money laundering watchdog, citing the current US economic sanctions on Iran as the main reason for the opposition.

FATF has given Iran an extended June deadline to complete the reforms necessary for joining the international body.

The post Expediency still undecided on date for FATF reviewing session: member appeared first on Iran News Daily.

He went on to add, “9 months have passed since then, and they have only created a channel called INSTEX, which is not even a financial channel but one for making purchases. Europeans should take note that we will not be deceived by them and endorse the FATF-related bills, because in this case we will consider the Establishment’s benefits, not anyone’s whims.”

Mesbahi Moghadam then referred to FM Zarif and President Rouhani’s positive position on endorsing the FATF-related bills, and their promise that joining the anti-money laundering watchdog, if not making Iran’s trade situation better, would not make it any worse.

“I would say that our situation will actually become worse by acceding to the two conventions (CFT and Palermo). Is it really in our best interests to reveal our foreign trade to countries such as the US, Saudi Arabia or the Zionist regime?”

He leveled more criticism on EU’s trade mechanism for Iran, adding “Europeans are asking us to put our oil revenues into INSTEX in exchange for their selling us food and medicine. They also want us to endorse the FATF-related bills in return for the channel. However, we must not be deceived by them.”

The post Iran not to endorse FATF bills in exchange for EU’s INSTEX appeared first on Iran News Daily.