TEHRAN, Iran, Dec.16
Trend:
Iran's Foreign Ministry's spokesman Abbas Mousavi spoke about whether Iran will be removed from the FATF blacklist if Iran fulfills its action plans.
“We believe that joining the conventions that FATF have obliged everyone to join is in favor of Iran,” Mousavi said at press conference on Monday, Trend reports.
“Different countries have action plans to do. The Islamic Republic has received an action plan too,” he said.
Mousavi added that Iran is neither a money launderer nor a sponsor of terrorism.
“We hope that the Expediency Council of Iran and the other organs will correctly recognize that this (joining to the FATF related conventions) is in our country's interest.”
Mousavi went on to say that Iran`s financial dealings with allies is dependent on adopting FATF-related bills.
“Banks in friendly countries have also told us that they will not be able to work with us if we do not join to the conventions,” he said.
“Any decision made by the Expediency Council will be obeyed by the MFA, but the Foreign Ministry has made its point,” said Mousavi.
The official pointed out that this is an obstacle for Iran to maintain relations with the world and countries friendly to the Islamic Republic.
“The world banks who joined this mechanism and accepted the rules, want to see whether Iranian banks comply with the relevant regulations or not,” he added.
In mid-October the Paris-based FATF announced that it had given Iran a final deadline of February 2020 to comply with international norms after which it would urge all its members to apply counter-measures.
One of the actions Iran is required to take to appease the FATF is to ratify the CFT, the convention on fighting the financing of terrorism.