TEHRAN - Iran’s Expediency Council has set aside studies to approve the Palermo bill, Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghadam has said.

“Palermo and CFT will help the United States to identify the ways we circumvent the sanctions. We will not tighten sanctions by our own hands,” Mesbahi-Moghadam, a council member, told ISNA in an interview published on Monday.

He added, “We are managing the country through circumventing the sanctions. Approval of these two bills is not wise.”

He also said, “The Guardian Council has found faults with this bill and from this council’s point of view, these two bills have not become legal. The Expediency Council has not studied them. So, they are not approved.”

The Financial Action Task Force announced in June that Iran had until October to complete reforms that would bring it into line with global norms or face consequences.

One of the actions Iran is required to take to appease the FATF is joining the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which is also called the Palermo Convention, a 2000 United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime.

The other action is to ratify the CFT, the convention combatting financing of terrorism.

On October 7, 2018, the Majlis (parliament) voted in favor of the CFT. However, the oversight Guardian Council rejected the bill by finding 22 faults with it.

NA/PA