“While there exist many questions and ambiguities about FATF guidelines, it is expected from the government to prevent the country from sinking into a new quagmire,” he wrote Saturday on his Instagram account.

FATF watchdog extended Iran’s deadline for four months to implement the related guidelines, he noted, adding, “its two years that they are following this policy.”

“In past two months, they put great political and media pressure on the Expediency Council to adopt a hasty decision, instead of engaging in technical discussions and reasoning. It was repeatedly told that FATF will put us on its blacklist.”

He went on to add, “While one can go ahead with efforts to resolve ambiguities and create transparency, then what is the aim of these pressures, threats, and deadlines?”

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) watchdog said on Friday that it has extended Iran’s deadline to June to strengthen its anti-money laundering legislation.

The two FATF-related bills have already been approved by the lawmakers in the Iranian Parliament and need to gain the approval of the Expediency Council after they were rejected by the Guardian Council.

Guardian Council is a body empowered to vet legislation but the Expediency Council acts as a mediator in disputes between the Parliament and the Guardian Council.

While the government of President Rouhani asks for the approval of the bills as a necessary step for keeping trade and banking ties with other countries under US economic sanctions. There are concerns among other officials and some lawmakers that joining the anti-money laundering body may pave the way for further sanctioning Iran.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Abdolnaser Hemmati, said “joining the FATF will benefit us. All other countries have already joined, and we do not wish to be on the body’s blacklist.”

Hemmati then warned of negative consequences if the country failed to endorse the FATF-related bills that are required of Iran before joining the anti-money laundering watchdog.

Iran has already ratified two of the amendment bills on the country’s domestic laws regarding money laundering and terrorism financing. But the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, known as Palermo Convention in Iran, as well as the bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT), are the two controversial bills undergoing intensive reviews in the Expediency Council for the final verdict.

Meanwhile, new concerns have rose among Iranian officials regarding the FATF and EU’s trade mechanism for Iran, known as INSTEX.

Some officials are concerned that EU would pressure Iran into joining FATF as a condition for implementing the trade mechanism to facilitate trade with the country in the face of US sanctions.

Iran says the two issues are completely separate and must not be linked together.

The meeting was chaired by Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, Iranian Judiciary Chief, and also attended by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

According to Seyed Mostafa Mir Salim, member of Expediency Council, the participants discussed the issue and exchanged views over joining the convention but did not reach a consensus, so the final decision was postponed to the council’s next session.

This is the second week in a row that the council deters the decision on the bill for further studies.

Palermo bill is one of the four government bills seeking to bring Iran’s anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing standards into line with international norms, specifically those defined by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The parliament has approved all the measures but except for the bill that updates Iran’s domestic CFT law. All the rest have been rejected by the Guardian Council – a watchdog that ensures laws are in line with the Constitution and Sharia.

Chairman of National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iranian Parliament Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said the Parliament will close the case on the bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT) by next week.

He added that the Expediency Council would give the final say on the CFT bill, as well as the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (known in Iran as Palermo) by next month.

He explained that the two FATF-related bills, namely the amendment bill on anti-money laundering and another amendment bill on combating terrorist financing, concerned amending domestic laws, which were passed recently.

Falahatpisheh added that the bill on Iran’s accession to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime will be put on the Expediency Council’s agenda soon.

The controversial CFT bill will be reviewed in the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee today to address and resolve the remaining flaws pointed out by the Guardian Council, he added.

The senior MP maintained that the fate of the two remaining bills will be decided by the Expediency Council by next month.

FATF has given Iran a February deadline to complete the necessary reforms regarding its removal from the task force’s blacklist.

In a letter to the head and members of Expediency Council on Saturday, the students highlighted that joining Palermo and CFT bills is against wisdom.

As the Leader of the Islamic Revolution has said, these bills are developed by enemies of the Iranian nation, the letter reads, adding that ratifying these bills will reveal Iran’s critical economic and nuclear information.

It’s better for the government to put forward domestic bills to fight money laundering and avoid disclosing economic information of Iranians, the letter notes.

The bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT) was rejected by the Guardian Council in early November due to some flaws that the Council had found to be ambiguous or against the country’s Shari’ah and the Constitutional law. The bill was then amended by the Iranian Parliament. The case is referred the Guardian Council to see if the amendment is proper or not.

In case of any disagreement between the Guardian Council and the Parliament, the final decision will be made by the Expediency Council.

FATF has given Iran a February deadline to complete the necessary reforms regarding its removal from the task force’s blacklist.

Given the above issue, the representatives lashed out at the relevant two bills which run contrary to the internal bylaw of the Parliament.

The four-group bills of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) include as follows: ‘Iran’s accession to the Contention of Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT)’, ‘Iran’s accession to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime dubbed ‘Palermo’, ‘correction of Anti-Money Laundering Law’ and ‘amendments to the law on Combating the Financing of Terrorism’.

The aforementioned bills became controversial in the political spheres of the country especially in the Iranian Parliament. In this regard, the two bills of ‘Palermo’ and ‘amendment of the Anti-Money Laundering Law’ were submitted to the Guardians’ Council after being approved in the Parliament.

After examining these bylaws thoroughly, the Guardians’ Council returned the bill with some amendments on it to the Iranian Parliament on Oct. 10.

One day after the return of these bylaws from the Guardians’ Council on Oct. 11, the Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in a separate letters sent the aforementioned bylaws i.e. ‘Palermo’ and ‘Anti-Money Laundering Law’ to the Chairman of Expediency Council Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi.

With due observance to the said issue, the said letter has turned into a hub of protest by some principalist’s representatives in the Parliament.

Now, some MPs say that Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has sent the two bills to the Expediency Council without investigation of the two bill in the Parliament’s plenary session as refunded from the Guardians’ Council, the issue of which has presently been criticized.