TEHRAN - Head of Financial Information Department at Iran’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs rejected the reports that Iran has been put on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s blacklist, IRIB reported.

“This is only a rumor spread by some foreign currency traders aiming to create bubbles in the market, it is not true at all,” Meisam Amiri told IRIB on Sunday.

According to the official, FATF hasn’t had any meetings recently and the task force holds meetings three times a year and its next gathering will be in February 2020.
“In their upcoming summit, the international body is going to discuss the actions taken by various countries as well as the demands of the task force from them. No new action has been taken to put Iran's name on the financial blacklist,” he explained.

Amiri further noted that the legal process of Iran joining FATF is being reviewed by the Joint Commission of the Expediency Council (EC).

Earlier on Monday, IRNA quoted Majid Ansari, a member of Iran’s Expediency Council, on approving or rejecting the bills of the two conventions of CFT (convention for combatting the financing of terrorism) and Palermo (United Nations convention against transnational organized crime), as saying that the two bills are being reviewed by the joint commission of the Expediency Council.

He said he has no specific predictions whether the CFT and Palermo conventions are approved or rejected.

He added that the Joint Commission on EC has had meetings in the past months and will have meetings in the coming days.

According to IRNA, the FATF has so far given Iran six times the opportunity to fully join the FATF and announced a last-time four-month deadline to finalize and approve the bills.

EF/MA