Iran’s Expediency Council begins renewed debates on FATF
A top Iranian legislative body has started renewed discussions on whether the country should join two controversial conventions adopted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) amid calls that accepting the conventions could ease the pressure of foreign sanctions on the country.
A spokesman of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council of the System, also known as the Expediency Council, said on Sunday that members of the body had discussed four articles of FATF’s Palermo convention during a session held earlier in the day.
Mohsen Dehnavi said the session was a meeting between members of a joint committee of the Council and was chaired by former Iranian judiciary chief and current head of the Council Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani.
Dehnavi said Council committees have held more than 20 meetings to discuss FATF’s Palermo and the Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) conventions, adding that the joint committee would continue its debates before the results are submitted to an open vote of the Council members.
The Iranian parliament has approved the Palermo and the CFT. Still, Iran's Guardian Council, responsible for vetting parliament legislation, has refused to ratify them, citing the need for some amendments.
The Expediency Council, comprised of more than 40 politicians, former officials, and senior clerics, is responsible for settling disputes between the two legislative bodies.
Iran has approved other conventions and regulations of the FATF.
The Council’s renewed debates on FATF come several years after it stopped examining the conventions, fearing they may undermine Iran’s financial independence.
They also come nearly a month after President Masoud Pezeshkian and other authorities signaled in speeches and statements that Iran was pondering joining FATF’s remaining two conventions to facilitate economic activity in the country.
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