A senior official on Friday welcomed the decision by an international group that monitors money-laundering worldwide to extend the deadline for Iran to complete reforms, calling it a diplomatic victory.
The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force said after a meeting of its members earlier in the day that Iran has until February to bring its regulations into line with global norms, Reuters reported.
It had previously set an October deadline to complete all the reforms. Otherwise, Iran risks being returned to a blacklist of non-compliant countries that makes foreign investors and banks reluctant to deal with it.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement that the latest development was an "achievement of the Islamic Republic of Iran's diplomacy", ISNA reported.
He criticized the United States for attempting to "exploit" its chairmanship of FATF to bring Iran back onto the international money-laundering blacklist.
>Political Propaganda
US efforts against Tehran are backed by Saudi Arabia and Israel, he said, expressing satisfaction over the fact that most FATF members were not influenced by Washington's political propaganda campaign.
"The United States has shown that it is not a reliable member of the international community and it is seeking to undermine all achievements of multilateralism through its unilateral moves.
Qasemi also said parts of the statement issued by the FATF are "politically motivated" and do not reflect the realities on the ground and the technical steps taken by the country to meet the required demands.
The global body said it was disappointed that Tehran had acted on only nine out of 10 of its guidelines despite pledges to make the grade.
"We expect Iran to move swiftly to implement the commitments that it undertook at a high level so long ago," said Marshall Billingslea, the US assistant Treasury Secretary for terrorist financing, after chairing the FATF meeting.
Iran's Parliament approved some new measures against funding terrorism earlier this month. However, FATF said it could only consider fully enacted legislation.
