TEHRAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2020) Tehran believes that the decision of the Paris-based Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) to keep Iran blacklisted for failure to tackle terrorism financing was unfair, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.
Earlier in the day, FATF voted to keep countermeasures against Iran in force, claiming that Tehran did not manage to ratify the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. The move would obstruct Tehran's plans to bypass the US sanctions by doing business with EU countries.
"As you know, for a little over two years, Iran has complied with all existing laws and regulations related to money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Iran was blacklisted by FATF, despite all the efforts made inside the country, despite all the laws and regulations that we sought to comply with," Mousavi said, as quoted by the Tasnim news agency.
Mousavi stated that the decision was politicized and lobbied by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
In accordance with the FATF decision, the member nations are advised to give "special attention to business relationships and transactions" with black listed countries, as well as financial institutions and others acting on their behalf. Iran was taken off the list after submitting an action plan to meet the Palermo standards in 2016, but the deadline expired in January 2018.
FATF was established in 1989 to set legal, regulatory and operational standards to combating money laundering, terrorist financing and related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
