Guardian Council rejects Iran's bill to join the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism
The spokesman for the Guardian Council of the Constitution announced that the council has rejected the bill for the Iranian government to join the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT). While Iran’s accession to the convention has been met with much controversy in Iran, the spokesman for the Guardian Council also said that this rejection does not mean it is definitive, and implied that the parliament’s insistence could pave the way for its consideration by the Council of Experts on the System of Disputes.
Abbasali Kadkhodaei wrote on his Twitter account that the Guardian Council considered the bill to have "problems and ambiguities" that include "unlawful, unconstitutional, and ambiguous," and that these problems were sent to the parliament "on time."
The Guardian Council spokesman added that the Guardian Council's opinion does not mean a definitive rejection of the resolution, and if the parliament insists on its previous opinion, the bill will be sent to the Expediency Council for further consideration.
The Iranian government's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism has been a controversial issue in recent weeks.
The Iranian government, accused by the United States of supporting terrorism, needs approvals to be removed from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, but three months ago, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, opposed any action in this regard.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Islamic Republic of Iran is the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. Iran supports groups such as Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, which the United States designates as terrorist groups.
In June of this year, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, referred to "some international conventions recently raised in the parliament" and said that representatives should legislate themselves in areas such as "fighting terrorism or combating money laundering." In his opinion, although "some provisions of international treaties may be good," "there is no need to join conventions based on these provisions if we are not aware of the depth of their goals or if we know that they have problems."
A month ago, there were whispers in the parliament that Ayatollah Khamenei had announced his agreement to approve new bills to remove Iran from the FATF blacklist.
In response to a letter from Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, Khamenei's office announced that it had no objection to the consideration of these bills in the Parliament, and that what it had previously said "related to the principle of the conventions and not to the specific convention."
This was after parliamentarians approved a bill in October of this year for Iran to join the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, with conditions, including not recognizing Israel.
In order to prevent Iran from being placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist, the Rouhani government submitted four bills to the parliament: "Accession to the Convention against Organized Crime," "Accession to the Convention against the Financing of Terrorism," "Amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Law," and "Amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Financing Law." However, so far, only the amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Financing Law has been approved.
Previously, supporters of the Rouhani government had said, citing the constitution, that the Guardian Council’s legal deadline for reviewing and expressing an opinion on the bill on Iran’s accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism had expired, and given the Guardian Council’s silence, the bill was considered approved. This issue was also mentioned by IRNA, the government’s official news agency. It seems that the Guardian Council spokesperson’s emphasis on submitting objections to the bill within the “legal deadline” is referring to this issue.
A few months ago, it was announced that Hassan Rouhani, in a confidential letter to the Secretary of the Guardian Council, described the passage of the four bills as “necessary” and requested “assistance” in their passage. Mohammad Javad Zarif also said this summer that the passage of the remaining three bills related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) would remove “one of the most important pretexts of the enemies” to confront Iran in “banking operations and cooperation.”
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced last month that it would give Iran another four months to comply with the group's demands and suspended precautionary measures against Iran.
At the same time as the news of the rejection of this bill by the Guardian Council was announced, some media outlets wrote that the Iranian stock market index fell due to the announcement of this news and the rejection of the bill.
