Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said compliance with international standards serves national interests and takes away future excuses from the United States to tighten the screws on Iran.
Addressing the parliament on Sunday before a vote on new financial measures that would bring the country closer to global norms, the chief diplomat said adopting international conventions will facilitate Iran's interaction with other countries, ISNA reported.
"Neither I nor the president can guarantee that all our problems will go away by joining the Convention for Combating the Financing of Terrorism, but we can assure you that not joining the convention will provide the United States with important pretexts to increase our problems," Zarif said.
The CFT bill, the last of four put forward by the government to meet demands set by the international Financial Action Task Force, was passed by 143 votes to 120.
If approved by the Guardians Council—a clerical vetting body that ensures draft laws do not contradict Islamic law or Iran's Constitution—the bill will help remove the country from investment blacklists as it faces renewed US sanctions.
"We have repeatedly defeated the United States through resistance and prudence, and will once again wisely defeat America. Overcoming sanctions requires maintaining national unity and cohesion, and acting in line with national interests, regardless of factional concerns," the foreign minister said in reference to some conservatives opposing the bill.
Zarif said the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, helped Iran take away some of the excuses used by the United States and Israel to pile up pressure on Tehran and was a landmark achievement.
>US Isolation
If the JCPOA had not been in Iran's interests, the United States would not have withdrawn from it, Zarif said, adding that the accord and the country's compliance helped isolate Washington in the international arena and proved to the world that Iran is right.
"We have managed to isolate the United States to the extent that the European Union, which is America's strategic partner, has created a mechanism to circumvent US sanctions," he said, referring to the Special Purpose Vehicle set up by the EU to facilitate trade with Iran and salvage the nuclear pact by offsetting the US pullout.
The foreign minister added that the adoption of international financial conventions will help such mechanisms work effectively and contribute to expansion of Iran's trade ties with other countries, particularly in the sanctions era.
Zarif noted that it would be in the national interest to refrain from taking any decision that could lead to the intensification of economic restrictions on the country.
Foreign businesses say legislations such as FATF guidelines are essential, if they are to increase investment.
In a tweet, Hamid Baeidinejad, Tehran's ambassador in London, hailed the parliament's decision to pass the law "in a transparent way" after studying it "meticulously" for months as a manifestation of democracy.
The move was also welcomed by many other officials.
