TEHRAN, Iran, Dec.16
Trend:
Iran's money is currently blocked in some countries since the country can not have international interaction and the economy is functioning in a difficult situation, said the former head of Iran's Monetary and Banking Research Institute.
"The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a tool for international banking interaction but when it is blocked even oil sales would become difficult since there would not be a way to transfer money therefore it would block oil sale revenues," said Ahmad Mojtahed, Trend reports citing ILNA.
"Iran is not a member of FATF and no bank is ready to work with Iran and individuals that delayed the vote on FATF-related bills did not understand the international banking interactions. The failure to pass the FATF-related bills and Iran's accession to this organization has put the country in a weak situation in international interactions," he said.
"It should be noted that without international communication, Iran's economy would be in weak conditions. Approval of the FATF-related bills would be a positive step and would solve many of financial interactions and would have an important effect on people's welfare," he added.
"While Iran has been blacklisted by the FATF, there were limited numbers of foreign banks that have contact with Iran even banks in China and Russia have announced they could no longer cooperate with Iran, so any remaining windows have been closed," he noted.
Mojtahed went on to say that investment in Iran has declined in this duration and the inflation rate has increased sharply while poverty has grown and those that were opposed to the approval of the FATF-related bills did not consider these issues.
"Approving the FATF related bills would accelerate connection with foreign countries and banks and would help improve Iran's economy. Without accession to the FATF, Iran could not pay for the necessary commodities while importing medicine and vaccine is not sanctioned but we can not transfer money for purchasing these items since Iran is not a member of the FATF," he stated.
Iranian Vice-President for Legal Affairs Laya Joneydi has recently announced that Iran's Expediency Council is extending the review of the FATF related bills.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has approved the request to review the legislation by the Expediency Council, which would bring the country into compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).