The Iranian parliament has approved a bill to join the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. This bill could pave the way for Iran to be removed from the FATF blacklist. Khamenei announced his agreement to the parliament’s consideration of the bill.
On Sunday, October 7, the Islamic Consultative Assembly approved a bill for Iran to join the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism ( CFT ).
The bill was approved with 143 votes in favor, 120 against, and 5 abstentions out of a total of 271 representatives present in the parliament.
However, the voting in the parliament was not public, contrary to the wishes of a number of representatives. Representatives opposed the public vote with 117 votes in favor, 111 votes against, and 13 abstentions. The method of public and transparent voting is such that representatives declare their vote for or against on the ballot papers with their names written on them. It was previously announced that representatives had received “threatening text messages” regarding today’s bill.
The Iranian parliament decided to shelve the “CFT” bill on June 10. The parliamentarians had postponed the decision on the bill until the outcome of the negotiations with the European Union to preserve the JCPOA became clear. However, the outcome of Europe’s efforts to save the JCPOA and provide the “guarantees” sought by the Islamic Republic is still not entirely clear.
Opponents of the bill on Iran's accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism and other bills related to the Financial Action Task Force ( FATF ) demanded that they be removed from the parliament's agenda, citing the "opposition" of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, to these bills.
However, supporters of these bills, while emphasizing the necessity of their passage, had repeatedly announced either the approval of the Leader of the Islamic Republic to these bills or had said that Khamenei had authorized the parliament and the government for four bills related to the FATF.
Khamenei's announcement of agreement to review the bill
Today, Sunday, before the start of voting on the bill for Iran's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, the letter from the office of the Leader of the Islamic Republic agreeing to review bills related to the FATF, including the CFT, was read by Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.
The office of the Leader of the Islamic Republic quoted Ali Khamenei as saying: "What I said in my meeting with representatives regarding the four bills and conventions was related to the principle of the conventions and not to a specific convention. Therefore, I have no objection to reviewing these bills in the parliament so that they can follow their legal path."
On June 20, 2019, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, announced his clear opposition to the bill to join the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and called on members of parliament to pass other laws in this area.
The "conditions" of the parliament
The parliamentarians have, of course, added conditions to the bill for Iran's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. One of these conditions emphasizes that Iran's accession to the CFT Convention does not mean recognition of Israel.
The parliament's resolution also mandates the "government" to "only deposit the instrument of accession with the depositary after the Islamic Republic of Iran is removed from the FATF blacklist."
Ali Najafi Khoshrudi, spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Parliament, said about Iran's conditions for joining the CFT: "We can impose reservations on this convention. No commitment will be made against Iran's national interests and security, no information will be made available to foreigners. In the economic war, we must use all opportunities, facilities, and international measures in this war. Some critics considered [this bill] related to the issue of the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, while there is no connection between the two. Failure to join this convention will result in new international restrictions for Iran."
A significant part of the opposition in Iran to the four bills is over the use of the term “terrorist groups” in them. Opponents warn that the United States considers organizations such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah to be terrorist groups as well as involved in drug trafficking, and that accepting conventions such as Palermo and the CFT could have an impact on Hezbollah’s conviction in relation to transnational organized crime.
Hezbollah, which enjoys widespread support from Iran, is on the United States' list of terrorist groups. In addition, the US Department of Justice has formed a task force to investigate allegations of money laundering and drug-related crimes against Hezbollah . Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has denied the allegations, calling them "baseless."
Opposition to FATF from "Sound and Vision" to "Street Floor"
The long-standing row in Iran over the four bills escalated on the eve of the parliament’s consideration of the “CFT” bill. Mohammad Yazdi, former speaker of the Assembly of Experts and current chairman of the Supreme Council of the Qom Seminary Teachers’ Association, wrote a letter to Ali Larijani yesterday, referring to “the guidelines and reminders of the Supreme Leader and other great authorities of Taqlid in Qom and the concerns of the respected members of the Teachers’ Association,” and asked the speaker of the Iranian parliament to “do nothing that, in addition to opposing the aforementioned authorities, harms the country and the system of governance of the Islamic Republic and is considered a weak point of the parliament in the history of the country.”
The deputy head of the Independent Provincial Faction in the Majlis has also accused the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting of “cooperating” with a “minimal group” against the FATF . Referring to the broadcast of the “anti -FATF documentary report” on Iranian state television, Gholamali Jafarzadeh Aymanabadi said: “The Iranian Broadcasting Corporation should be a place of conflicting opinions and, in the true sense of the word, “national,” but unfortunately, we sometimes witness that due to some political activities, the direction of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation is such that it seems to want to force public opinion in a certain direction.”
The Rasht representative in the Iranian parliament added: "People are satisfied with FATF, except for a small group who intend to create fear and panic among the representatives by threatening them with text messages."
On Sunday, during the review of the bill for Iran's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, Ali Larijani confirmed the sending of "threatening text messages" to representatives and said: "The parliament is too mature to change its mind with a few text messages."
Alireza Rahimi, a member of the presidium of the parliament, in an interview with the website “Asr Iran” yesterday, referring to the text messages sent to representatives, stated that most of them originated from the provinces of Khorasan and Isfahan. This member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the parliament had said: “In fact, the opposition, including those wearing the shroud and some students, have brought in-depth expert discussions to the streets on various occasions, and in this regard, they have also taken over a platform on the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation.”
Today, as the parliament began reviewing the CFT bill, a group of opponents of its approval gathered in front of the Iranian parliament building and demanded that the representatives vote against the bill. According to Iranian media reports, the protesters held placards with slogans such as “We don’t want the JCPOA, ” “ FATF is a betrayal of the nation,” “ FATF approval = JCPOA 2,” and “Baharestan: House of the Nation or House of Government?” to protest the possible approval of the bill on the Convention against the Financing of Terrorism.
Zarif defends joining the CFT in parliament
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who attended the public session of the parliament to review the CFT bill, defended the passage of the bill, saying, among other things: "We cannot guarantee that joining the CFT bill will solve the problems, but we guarantee that by not joining this bill, the United States will find important excuses to increase our problems."
Zarif continued: "We have been able to isolate America to such an extent that the European Union, as America's strategic partner, has created regulations and mechanisms to circumvent American sanctions. This mechanism is considered the beginning of the end of the dollar's rule over the global economy. We need to know what the Islamic Republic and the JCPOA have been able to do?" The Iranian foreign minister added: "These same Europeans say that in order to implement this mechanism, we need Iran to be a member of these conventions."
The importance of FATF-related bills for Iran
In order to avoid the risk of complete blockage of bank transfer routes with the arrival of US sanctions, the Islamic Consultative Assembly put four bills on its agenda: a bill for Iran's accession to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, known as the "Palermo Convention", a bill for Iran's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) , a bill to amend the Anti-Money Laundering Law, and a bill to amend the Anti-Terrorism Financing Law.
In addition to the bill to join Iran to the CFT, the parliament has also approved three other bills. Of course, these bills, except for the bill to amend the law on combating the financing of terrorism, have encountered obstacles from the Guardian Council and have faced objections from the Council as well as the Expediency Discernment Council .
Less than a month ago, the Expediency Discernment Council had declared one of the bills related to the FATF, namely the bill to amend the Anti-Money Laundering Law, contrary to the "general policies of the resistance economy, encouraging investment, food security, and economic security," and had rejected it, citing the "risks" arising from the approval of such a bill.
However, many supporters of the approval of the four bills consider the Expediency Discernment Council’s opinions to be “advisory” and consider the Supreme National Security Council, not the Expediency Discernment Council, to be the authority to consider such “vital” bills. Iran’s negotiating team, which is engaged in talks with the European Union to “preserve the JCPOA,” had previously conveyed its message to the parliament regarding the necessity of approving the four bills related to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. According to Abolfazl Mousavi, a member of the Omid faction in the parliament, they “declared in a report in the parliament that if you want us to succeed in the negotiations, at least the four bills must be approved by the parliament.”
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament, also said on September 25 about the importance of bills related to the Financial Action Task Force: "These four bills are a system bill that does not concern the Parliament, the government, or the Assembly, but rather concerns the entire system. In this regard, we have no favoritism with anyone and we speak our minds."
The approval of the four bills, including joining the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism, is essential to breaking the international banking restrictions on Iran. This path cannot be paved without the Islamic Republic’s cooperation with the FATF, which operates under that convention. Among the recommendations of the intergovernmental organization, the Financial Action Task Force, is the establishment of “international standards” to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The group, which monitors Iran’s activities and the country’s progress in combating money laundering and combating terrorist financing, gave the Islamic Republic another three months in early July to implement the organization’s conditions and prepare the ground for its complete removal from the “black list.”
Source: DW
