BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 17
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
If Iran doesn’t approve the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) conventions, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will become meaningless, Iranian economist Mahmoud Jamsaz said, Trend reports via ISNA.
Jamsaz said that in this case the EU sanctions will be added to the US sanctions against Iran.
“As a result of the sanctions increase, Iran’s economy will be shrinking from day to day and the country will face an impasse,” the expert noted.
Jamsaz added that the European parties to the nuclear agreement offered different solutions to keep the JCPOA.
“One of the solutions is INSTEX,” the expert said. “Through this mechanism, exports of some Iranian products and getting money in return are planned. Of course, the mechanism can be implemented if Iran joins the FATF conventions.”
Jamsaz noted that the European side offered to Iran to accept the FATF conventions, adding that in this case the EU will remain in the nuclear agreement and INSTEX will be implemented.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions against Iran in November of the same year. In order to preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal stated in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories having not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
On Sept. 5, Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA.
On Nov. 5, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped to the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
The FATF was established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 Group to combat money laundering. FATF has 37 members and its secretariat is in Paris.
The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
During the FATF recent meeting, Iran has been warned that it may be added to the list of non-cooperative countries within the next three months if it does not completely fulfill the FATF requirements. Iran fulfilled 37 of 41 FATF requirements. The remaining four requirements refer to the legislative field.
Although four conventions have been approved and sent to the Expediency Board, the CFT and Palermo conventions have not yet been ratified by the Board.
Iran was included in the FATF blacklist in 2007.