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Khamenei closes door to approval of FATF-related bill

Politics Materials 20 June 2018 14:57 (UTC +04:00)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there is no need for approval of treaties that have problems.
Khamenei closes door to approval of FATF-related bill

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 20

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said there is no need for approval of treaties that have problems.

Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with MPs in Tehran June 20, the official website of the Iranian leader said.

“We do not need to approve treaties, which have problems, for their positive aspects,” Khamenei said, calling the parliament to pass domestic laws on fight against money laundering and terrorism.

Khamenei’s comments came after the Iranian parliament suspended discussing the bill of "Accession of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism” for two months after disputes.

Iran needs to pass the bill in order to get off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, but the hardliners in the country are concerned over the certain limitations that the convention would impose on Iran’s ties with groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah or Palestine’s Hamas.

“There is no need to accept things for some of their positive aspects when we do not know where they are leading, and when we do know that they have some flaws,” Khamenei said.

Major powers define the international conventions in line with their own interests, he said, adding that member states to these conventions have no say in them.

“If an independent government like the Islamic Republic refuses to sign up, it will come under attack and criticism that 150 countries have already joined, so why don’t you?,” the Iranian leader added.

The FATF-related bill, which was proposed by Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and approved by the Cabinet in October 2017, was presented to the Parliament May 20 to take its relevant legislative procedures. But the parliament in a session on June 10, decided to suspend discussing it for two months.

Defending the bill in that session, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the country’s membership in the Financial Action Task Force, the policy-making body of the international financial system, would not pose any security threat to the Islamic Republic.

Araqchi said that the bill is one of the international instruments to fight against terrorism, adding that terrorism has countless international networks and that without joining international conventions, fighting terrorism and uprooting its financial sources would be impossible.

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