Hujjat al-Islam Zonnour:

The problem of banking transactions is that the FATF and 100 other treaties won’t be solved

Rasa – The member of the National Security Council of the Islamic Consultative Assembly said that membership in the FATF isn’t in Iran’s best interest.

News ID: 438781

Date: 20 July 2018 - 23:18

RNA – In an interview with the Rasa News Agency, Hujjat al-Islam Mojtaba Zonnour, a member of the National Security Council of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, didn’t consider the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) as an international organization that has been defined as part of the structure of the United Nations system, such as UNESCO, and said, “Although the FATF isn’t part of the United Nations, it has been recognized by the United Nations. It’s a financial action group formed by several major countries in the world, especially in Europe, and their work is to classify countries with regard to their investment risk and their banking status and, according to financial transparency, it’s possible to promote them.”

The head of the Clerical Faction in the Islamic Consultative Assembly described details of the FATF mechanism, saying, “They have no problem for their countries and the imperialist system because they hide their work and don’t give the facts about their own countries and all the assistance that the United States gives to Daesh isn’t exposed or punished. Such work to control other countries is useful for them.”

He added, “Membership in the FATF isn’t beneficial to us because it contains 46 conventions. About 40 of them aren’t harmful to implement in the country but there are four conventions which are bad and the worst of them is one of which is prevalent the convention on financial terrorism.”

Hujjat al-Islam Zonnour added, “The next point is the objectives which are pursued. For example, the fight against the financing of terrorism. What is terrorism and how is terrorism described to people? They are the ones who determine terrorism, not us. Therefore, the hypocrites who took all these martyrs from us are working freely in the parliaments of Europe and serve the United States, but Hezbollah, the Popular Mobilization Forces, the Muslim people of Yemen and Bahrain, the IRGC and the Quds Force are known as terrorist organizations. Therefore, since our definition of terrorism and terrorism isn’t accepted, this can also be a means of self-sanctioning and punishment against ourselves.”

In response to those who consider membership in the FATF conditional, safe and secure, the representative of Qom in the Islamic Consultative Assembly said, “These conditions have been adopted and accepted and other countries didn’t object to our conditions. Now that membership in the FATF hasn’t been approved in our parliament, twelve countries have objected to our conditions – conditions that we haven’t yet announced. Therefore, the imperialist powers don’t allow the United States, the West, their allies, Saudi Arabia and their lackeys to enforce our conditions.”

He said, “Membership in the FATF isn’t in our best interest. Previously, we had the same intention for the sake of protecting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and attracting the attention of the Americans and now that the United States has left the JCPOA and the sanctions are being reimposed, why should we join the FATF?”

Hujjat al-Islam Zonnour said, “If today, the big, international banks don’t cooperate with us, it’s not because of the FATF because we aren’t on the black list due to the FATF but rather we are in a grey area. This lack of cooperation with big, international banks is because of the threat and sanctions of the United States. If we join a hundred FATFs and sign a hundred other treaties like this, if the American there are threats and sanctions, the world’s banks still wouldn’t  dare to risk it and cooperate with us.”

Rasa News Agency

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