TEHRAN – The Expediency Council’s Public Relations has rejected the Tuesday remarks of Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri on FATF-related bills, saying the council will mull over the bills regardless of all the pressure.

The council will consider national interests when examining the bills, the body said in a statement on Wednesday, IRNA reported.

It also said Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not made any written or oral remarks to show his approval of the FATF-related bills.

It is expected that governmental authorities avoid misrepresenting the Leader’s remarks, it added.

Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary of the council, made similar remarks in a tweet on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Jahangiri urged the Expediency Council to ratify the FATF-related bills as soon as possible.

“Given that the FATF and CFT bills were passed in the meeting of heads of government branches and also confirmed by the Supreme Leader, the Expediency Council would better ratify these bills,” he suggested.

“It would be better if the people were informed about all affairs, including talks within the administration, Majlis, Guardian Council and Expediency Council,” the vice president noted.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday it had given Iran a final deadline of February 2020 to tighten its laws against money laundering in compliance with the global watchdog’s financial standards.

“If before February 2020, Iran does not enact the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions in line with the FATF Standards, then the FATF will fully lift the suspension of counter-measures and call on its members and urge all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures, in line with recommendation 19,” the FATF said in a statement, according to Reuters.

“The FATF expects Iran to proceed swiftly in the reform path to ensure that it addresses all of the remaining items by completing and implementing the necessary Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing reforms.”

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 parliament voted in favor of the CFT. However, the oversight Guardian Council rejected the bill by finding 22 faults with it, which put the fate of the bill on the hands of the Expediency Council.

MH/PA