RNA – Hujjat al-Islam Mojtaba Zonnour spoke on the night before the passing of a controversial vote by Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) at Qom’s Amir al-Momenin Mosque.
The member of the parliament’s National Security Committee argued that the right to make conditions and safeguards is a wise deception and demagoguery and said, “Only in the situation when we have the right to make conditions, which isn’t in opposition to the spirit of the FATF convention nor is it against the Vienna Convention [UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances] and the countries that have accepted the FATF haven’t objected to our terms and conditions, while our terms don’t include any of these authorizations.”
He added that some say that if the treaty was detrimental for us, we could leave it and stated, “This is not a correct statement because since we were to announce our withdrawal to the United Nations, it would take one year until they give permission for us to leave. It’s unclear what will happen to this country in one year. In reality, the consequences of not joining the FATF are far less than joining and then withdrawing from it.”
Hujjat al-Islam Zonnour explained that it must not be said that the rest of the countries have joined the FATF and therefore, we must also join it and said, “The conditions of our country are different from other countries because we aren’t in the hands of the arrogant powers of the world but rather, we stand against it but unfortunately, some don’t know this.”
The representative of the people of Qom in the Islamic Consultative Assembly considered the FATF as a “happy service” to the Europeans and added, “Europe is tantamount to rainless clouds because they have lightning, thunder and noise but their goodness and benefit will not reach us.”
He said that Europeans were and still are seeking to weaken Iran’s missile power and added, “The Europeans have recently abandoned the missile issue in negotiations with us and they always emphasize two issues, one of which is the opening of a European Union office in Tehran and the other is the acceptance of the FATF. There seems to be a kind of collusion between some authorities within the country and the Europeans.”
Hujjat al-Islam Zonnour emphasized, “If these bills were good and a blessing for us, the Europeans never would have advised us.”
His Eminence stated, “In fact, by accepting the FATF, we will give control of our financial transactions to the enemies and they will destroy all our financial communication bridges with other countries which leads to the circumvention of the sanctions. FATF isn’t a rejection of sanctions, it is also a grounds for making smart sanctions.”
On October 7th, the Iranian parliament passed a bill on combating the financing of terrorism as part of the country's implementation of international standards set by the FATF.
Rasa News Agency
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