BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 21. The country's accession to FATF may create certain problems in the context of US and Western sanctions against Iran, the Iranian expert Farshid Bagherian told Trend.
According to him, this is due to the fact that under sanctions, Iranian crude oil and a number of other products are exported from the country under the guise of various companies, and these funds are used to circumvent sanctions.
“But if Iran joins the FATF, it will be very difficult to establish these companies and secretly sell Iranian crude oil and a number of its products. Therefore, Iran's accession to FATF will create financial problems,” he noted.
The US imposed new sanctions against Iran in November 2018 in connection with Iran's nuclear program. Over 700 banks, companies, and individuals exporting Iranian oil have fallen under sanctions over the past period.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an intergovernmental body that regulates rules against money laundering and financing of terrorism. At the last meeting of this organization, Iran was warned that if Iran's program of steps is not improved, Iran may be added to the list of non-cooperating countries. Iran has complied with 37 out of 41 FATF steps.
The remaining four steps or conventions fall under the area of legislation. “Amendments to the Law on Combating Money Laundering," ‘Amendments to the Law on Combating the Financing of Terrorism’, ”Accession to the International Convention on Combating Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo), and Accession to the International Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) have been drafted by the Iranian government and sent to the parliament. Although the four conventions have been approved by the parliament and sent to the Advisory Council, the CFT conventions and the Palermo Convention have not yet been approved by the mentioned council.
FATF was established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 group to combat money laundering. The organization has 37 members and its secretariat is located in Paris.
Iran has been on the FATF blacklist since 2007, and since 2009, retaliatory measures have been officially applied against Tehran. Therefore, countries had to be cautious in their financial and banking transactions with Iran. Since 2016, the implementation of diplomatic measures against Iran has been postponed.
To note, the financial group FATF added Iran to the list of non-cooperative countries (blacklist) on February 21, 2020.
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