Hujjat al-Islam Zonnour:‎

Maneuver against the right to make conditions in FATF a ‘wise demagoguery’‎

Rasa – The member of the parliament’s National Security Committee argued that the right to ‎make conditions and safeguards is a wise deception and demagoguery.‎

News ID: 440892

Date: 08 October 2018 - 11:29

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

112/974‎