The Spokesman for the Guardian Council, which is empowered to vet legislation in Iran, said on Saturday that the bill of Iran’s membership in the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) is in contradiction to the security policy of the country and the policies of the Resistance Economy.
Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei told reporters in a presser that UNTOC bill for the Iranian government's accession to the UNTOC also known as the Palermo bill in Iran was discussed during several meetings of the Guardian Council and some shortcomings were discovered with the bill.
The Iran’s membership in the UNTOC bill was first passed in the Iranian Parliament back in January but was sent to the Guardian Council to get its approval.
Kadkhodaei said today that there were some problems with the translated version of the Convention that were addressed and edited by the Parliament, but there are still problems with the article 3 of the bill.
He said that Guardian Council confirmed the two shortcomings with the bill that had already been noticed by the Expediency Council.
The two shortcoming with the bill were the bill’s contradiction to the security policies of the country and the Resistance Economy.
With regard to the FATF-related bill of Iran’s accession to the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism (CFT), the Guardian Council spokesman said that it is in conflict with clause 2 of the Article 158 of the Constitution.
He noted that Guardian Council has not received the CFT bill yet and it will announce its stance on the bill when it receives it.
Kadkhodaei further noted that the Leader of the Islamic Republic’s previous warnings on the membership in the UNTOC are of great importance to legislation bodies of the apparatus, while stressing that the different bodies can have their own say on the matter.
Iran needs to pass the bill in order to get off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, but the lawmakers are concerned over the certain limitations that the convention would impose on Iran’s ties with resistance groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah or Palestine’s Hamas.
The anti-money laundering body-FATF-has given Iran until October to pass the related bills.
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