Tehran, Iran, Nov.5
Trend:
Referring to the Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) bill's rejection at Iran's Guardian Council, a member of the country's parliament said that the council members found a lot of shortcomings, and said the bill was against the Shari'a and the constitution.
The Guardian Council’s spokesman, Abbasali Kadkhodaei, said that the council has examined the bill and decided it has some problems and ambiguities.
The council has sent the bill back to the parliament, according to the spokesman.
The bill was returned to Parliament, and the Board of Directors of the Parliament referred it to the National Security Commission.
It is supposed that the commission will hold a meeting this week or next week and after reconsideration, they will return the bill to representatives, Jalal Mirzaie told Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA).
If the bill is approved by the representatives again, the bill will send to Expediency Discernment Council to decide, he said.
“I think the opinion of the Expediency Discernment Council, according to the position of Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani has already been announced,” he said. “It is clear that this dispute is not supposed to be resolved.”
Pointing to the new complexity of CFT bill, he said that Iran expected to be more intelligent in this regard, given the reality.
"However, the Guardian Council has decided to reject the bill. Now we have to decide again. It is likely that the parliament will protect its previous vote," he said.
Kermani went on to add that Iran "shot itself in the foot."
“According to my assessment, rejection of the bill is making the country`s situation worse,” he believes.
“The leaders of their three branches of power including Legislative, executive and judicial were agreed to approve the CFT bill. Surprisingly, contrary to the views of the three powers the Guardian Council decides to reject the bill,” he said.
I'm not much optimistic about the Expediency Discernment Council`s decision," he said.
The CFT is one of the four bills put forward by the government to meet standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It was approved at Iran's parliament by 143 votes to 120 on October 7, but had to receive Guardian's Council's blessing to become law.
Following the Iranian parliament's approval of the CFT, the FATF said it had decided to continue suspending counter-measures, which can go as far as limiting or even banning transactions with a country.
The FATF cannot impose sanctions, but individual states that are its members have used the group's reports to take punitive measures against their adversaries. As a result, Iran has been targeted by the US and European sanctions.