Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council has suspended consideration of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (known as Palermo Bill in Iran), one of the four conventions of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghadam, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, Trend reports referring to Fars news agency.
Mesbahi-Moghadam said that this convention won’t be investigated until US sanctions against Iran are lifted.
The member of the Expediency Discernment Council added that a year has passed since the Iranian parliament submitted the bill to the Expediency Discernment Council, however sanctions haven’t been lifted.
“According to the decision by Iran’s Guardian Council of the Constitution, the Palermo Bill has been rejected,” Mesbahi-Moghadam said.
The member of the Expediency Discernment Council said that if Palermo Bill was accepted, Iran’s all international sale and purchase transactions would be clear to the FATF.
“In other words, with Palermo Bill’s adoption, Iran wouldn’t be able to avoid sanctions,” Mesbahi-Moghadam noted.
Although two of the FATF conventions condemning money laundering, terrorism financing have been ratified in Iran, two conventions (Palermo and CFT) have not yet been ratified.