Tehran, Iran, Nov.10
Trend:
Members of Iranian Expediency Discernment Council are likely to approve the CFT bill, said an Iranian politician.
"The Guardian Council has rejected the Combating Financing Terrorism (CFT) bill based on its legal duties, but passing that bill is in the interest of the country," an Iranian politician who has been a member of the Expediency Discernment Council since 1997, Mohammad Hashemi Rafsanjani told ILNA.
“I believe the members of the Expediency Discernment Council are likely to approve the CFT bill,” he said.
The CFT is one of the four bills put forward by the government to meet standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It was approved by Iran's parliament by 143 votes to 120 on October 7, but the Guardian Council has sent the bill back to the parliament last week.
If the parliament insists on its previous approval of the bill, it will be referred to the Expediency Council for final decision.
Following the Iranian parliament's approval of the CFT, the FATF said it had decided to continue suspending counter-measures, which can go as far as limiting or even banning transactions with the country.
The FATF cannot impose sanctions, but individual states that are its members have used the group's reports to take punitive measures against their adversaries. As a result, Iran has been targeted by the US and European sanctions.
"The US sanctions are not crippling since eight countries can purchase Iran oil and even countries that cooperate with Iran in the framework of peaceful nuclear policies are exempted from sanctions," Iranian politician added.
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has announced temporary six month exemption of eight countries including China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey to purchase and import Iran oil.
"The US new sanctions are mostly psychological than economical and effect on the ordinary people,“ he said.