Mohammadreza Pourebrahimi referred to the latest decision made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Iran which refused to remove Iran from its blacklist while extending suspension of counter-measures against it, saying the Iranian parliament welcomes financial transparency while it will not accept political pressures.
The Paris-based international governing body which is in charge of taking actions against money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism –FATF-published a press release after its last meeting on February 18-23, 2018 in Paris, France, saying “given that Iran has draft legislation currently before Parliament, the FATF decided at its meeting this week to continue the suspension of counter-measures.”
The Iranian lawmaker went on to tell Mehr News Agency (MNA) that the Iranian parliament is discussing two bills (Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism) presented by the government of Hassan Rouhani, adding that the Parliament Economic Committee and also the Legal and Judicial Committee of Iran’s Parliament will separately release their own reports on the possible consequences of joining the FATF.
The Chairman of Iran’s Parliament Economic Committee added “any obligations incorporated in FATF should be in accordance with our national interests,” adding “even if there have been commitments that are contrary to [Iran’s] national interests, the parliament will eventually adopt a text to meet our national and strategic interests.”
Pourebrahimi went on to stress “our approach is that all financial regulations should be transparent and we should cooperate with international institutions, but we will definitely not accept that an institution like the FATF imposes political pressures on us.”
Pointing out that the parliament is working on the two above mentioned bills in coordination with the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to prepare a report on the consequences of joining the FATF, the Chairman of Iran’s Parliament Economic Committee concluded that the SNSC has not contacted them yet.
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