Two pending bills demanded by the Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering watchdog, will again be discussed at the Expediency Council, the top legislation vetting body.
The announcement was made by La'ya Jonaidi, Iran’s vice president for legal affairs, on Sunday but some EC members have said they had no information about it.
In a talk with the Persian-language government newspaper ‘Iran’, Jonaidi said the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has agreed with a government request to extend the deadline for reviewing the two FATF bills.
FATF has asked Iran to pass four bills as part of the “Action Plan” to get out of its blacklist. Last year the Rouhani administration was able to approve and enact amendments to counter-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering rules.
But the government failed to get approval from the main legislative body for the two remaining bills, namely Palermo (convention against transnational organized crime) and terrorist financing conventions (CFT), despite the fact that the key bills were passed by the government and parliament.
The two remaining bills were not approved by the Guardian Council - a watchdog that ensures laws are in line with the Islamic Republic Constitution and Sharia - and were sent to the EC for a final decision. EC is a constitutional arbiter between the Majlis and the Guardian Council. The bills have remained in limbo since then, resulting in Iran's inclusion in FATF's blacklist last February.
The global anti-money laundering watchdog lifted the suspension of counter-measures against Iran and called on its members and all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures against the country.
At its latest plenary session in October, the FATF said Iran along with North Korea remains on the FATF’s list of “high-risk jurisdictions”.
Some Ambiguity
Last week news outlets quoted the EC Secretary Mohsen Rezaee as saying that the government had sent a request to the Leader along with proposals that could address EC members concerns about the possible consequences of giving a final approval to the remaining bills.
Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dori Najafabadi, a senior EC member said he has no information on whether or not the bills will be reviewed again at the council, but did not dismiss the possibility.
"It is possible that the EC may place the FATF bills on its agenda again. But this does not necessary mean that it will be approved," he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Likewise, Majid Ansari, another EC member, confirmed that the Leader had accepted the government's request for reviewing the remaining bills by the legislative body.
Struggling to Comply
The government on several occasions has called for removing obstacles to joining regulations mandated by the FATF.
Weeks before the FATF’s February meeting, which ruled to blacklist Iran, senior government officials, namely President Hassan Rouhani and CBI Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, appealed to the legislative body to approve the FATF bills.
The FATF blacklist has made a bad situation worse for Iran's economy, already grappling with tough banking sanctions unleashed by the overtly confrontational Donald Trump and his minions.
Earlier, Ali Rabiei, the government spokesman, said non-compliance with FATF norms has further undermined Iran’s access to international banking and financial services.
“It has created difficulties in our economic and financial relations with the outside world, even with friendly countries, like China and Russia,” Rabiei was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Rabiei described the US “maximum pressure” policy as the prime factor undermining Iran’s financial industry.
Opponents of compliance with FATF norms claim it will expose Iran’s key economic and financial data to hostile powers like the United States. Advocates and most independent experts dismiss the concerns as unwarranted and unhelpful.
