Majid Ansari told IRNA that the two remaining FATF-related bills that Iran has been required by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force to endorse are still being evaluated by the Expediency Council.

He declined to comment about whether the two bills would be finally rejected or approved by the Council.

“The joint commission of the Expediency Council has held several meetings in the past few months on this issue, and will continue to hold some other meetings in the future,” he said.

Asked whether the members of the Expediency Council are concerned about the deadline running out, he said “I have nothing to say about that. As far as I know, the bills are still on agenda of the joint commission of the Expediency Council.”

This is while another EC member, Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam, had told Mehr back in November that the Palermo bill was no longer on the agenda as the one-year deadline for the Expediency Council to evaluate the bill against the country’s national interests had come to an end.

“The deadline for reviewing the CFT bill is not over yet,” he had added.

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, known as 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 had said.

He made the remarks in a live IRIB TV program aired Friday night.

“This financial channel [INSTEX], which the Europeans have established, is in fact not a financial channel, but a commodity one; it means they take our oil and give us commodities in return. They are mistakenly calling it as a financial channel … Our oil is sold and our money goes to a deposit which is in their control and they give us medicine, agricultural goods, and food in return.”

“The important point is that Western and European countries are introducing troubles in our financing, but they say let’s cooperate financially. If your banks do not work with us, how do you expect our banks to trade with you?”

The ‘dishonesty’ of Western countries prove that they do not want to give us Iran’s own money, he said, adding, “this is why we are suspicious of requests on CFT [the bill on convention against the funding of terrorism] and Palermo [bill] and we have urged the government and parliament to explicitly answer the ambiguities.”

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 risen 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 bills are now being reviewed in the Expediency Council.

Addressing reporters on the sidelines of Parliament’s open session on Sunday, Falahatpisheh said “the detention of Press TV anchor Marzieh Hashemi, for whatever reason, is contrary to the US Code and international regulations.”

“The detention of Iranian journalist Marzieh Hashemi has been ordered by US President Trump, which is totally against the law and we will certainly follow this in international circles and in the form of public diplomacy,” he noted.

He noted that this is a reminder of an Act passed in 2001, during the tenure of then US President George W Bush, based on which all rights to civil liberties, freedom of expression and media freedom can be banned in the United States.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, emphasizing that the arrest of Hashemi is a clear violation of the law given by Trump himself, said “a country claiming to pursue democracy promotion and defense of freedom of expression, arrests this woman who has never violated the principles of professional journalism, only with the order of its president.”

Pointing out that this incident reflects the true image of US policy, Falahatpisheh said “the Islamic Republic of Iran will certainly pursue the issue in international circles, in the form of public diplomacy.”

“Contrary to the claims of Americans, these are Iranians who are always the victims of US double-standards,” he noted.

Pointing to the review of the flaws pointed out by the Guardian Council on the bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT), Fahlatpisheh said the Parliament voted today to the consolidation of its reservations.

“The Guardian Council had pointed out 22 flaws to the bill, but found found only three resolved, and the rest had been referred to the Parliament for further amendment,” he noted, adding “seven out of the remaining flaws are directly related to the Expediency Discernment Council, based on Iran’s legislation.”

“The legislator stipulates that if a judge isuues ruling over some cases in foreign countries, they do not necessarily have to be implemented in our country, except in cases of expediency and, accordingly, Expediency Council is the rsponsible body to make decision regarding these seven flaws,” Falahatpisheh underlined.

He added that the Iranian government will not accept anything that is contrary to the Islamic Republic’s norms and principles, and this is one of the fundamental reservations of Iran in approving the CFT bill.

He said the bill will be referred to Expediency Council and the advisory body will decide on Palermo and CFT conventions within a month.