Hujjat al-Islam Pejmanfar:‎

The FATF completes the sanctions cycle against Iran

Rasa – The representative of the people of Mashhad and Kalat in the Islamic Consultative ‎Assembly said that a country that is a member of the FATF, and later wishes to withdraw its ‎membership, will experience a higher conviction.‎

News ID: 440752

Date: 29 September 2018 - 21:14

RNA – Speaking with the media at the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Hujjat al-Islam ‎Nasrollah Pejmanfar, the representative of the people of Mashhad and Kalat in the Islamic ‎Consultative Assembly, said that during a meeting was held in May 2016 with the ministries ‎of Foreign Affairs and Economic Affairs and Finance, as well as the Central Bank, where an ‎agreement with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was signed without coordination with ‎the parliament and the Supreme National Security Council and this issue was hidden until July ‎of the same year.  ‎

The member of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly said that the ‎ratification of Iran’s accession to the Counter-Terrorism Financing Convention (CFT) was ‎presented to the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the government is required to ‎implement it in October 2018.‎

He added, “Despite some claims that the CFT has no relation to the FATF, it must be noted ‎that joining this convention has been signed in order to comply with its obligations of the ‎FATF.”‎

Hujjat al-Islam Pejmanfar stated, “Our question now is that if we determine the conditions ‎for accepting the CFT, can we define the terrorist groups according to our constitution? We ‎have to say, no. Of course, the more accurate response to them is that you don’t have the ‎right to do this according to your own opinion because in recommendation six of this ‎agreement we have accepted that we mustn’t have ideological issues.”‎

He stressed that if we accept this convention, regardless of its recommendation six, a trial ‎will take place. For example, the FATF can say that there is an active terrorist cell in our ‎country and you must block the assets of this group and if we say no, these groups are ‎allowed, conflict will occur and action will be taken at the international courts to resolve the ‎conflict between our government and the observer body.‎

A member of the Cultural Commission of the Majles added, “By accepting the FATF, we will ‎have to place all our classified information on our banks to observer states. In fact, the ‎FATF can complete the sanctions cycle against Iran so that we don’t have any kind of ‎movement inside the country. Suppose, for example, if we buy security equipment to ‎strengthen our borders, the FATF can monitor the cash flow and even the purchase of the ‎equipment.” ‎

Hujjat al-Islam Pejmanfar continued, “We believe in transparency in the country, but it ‎seems that some of the words are being misused, in other words, if through the FATF, we ‎provide our general information with other countries, we are obliged to introduce all the ‎references of what has been sent and received.”‎

In conclusion, he said, “A country that is a member of the FATF, and later wishes to ‎withdraw its membership, will experience a higher conviction.”‎

Rasa News Agency

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