TEHRAN – Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council (EDC) on Saturday approved abill on joining a UN convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism(CFT), official IRNA news agency reported.Gholam Reza Mesbahi Moqaddam, a member of the council, announced “theendorsement of the bill … with new amendments.”
The bill will be sent back to the parliament speaker for a parliamentaryvote, he said.
The EDC is an assembly to resolve disputes between the parliament and thehigh legislative body of the Guardian Council of the Constitution.
On October 7, 2018, the Iranian lawmakers approved a bill on Iran’saccession to CFT standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering,terrorist financing and threats to the integrity of the internationalfinancial system.However, the Guardian Council rejected the bill on joining the conventionon the CFT in November 2018, citing the ambiguity of the CFT bill and itsbreach of the religious law and the Constitution.The bill was then sent to the EDC for arbitration.The final passage of the bill by the Iranian legislation will boost Iran’sengagement in the international business and with financial bodies amid theU.S. re-imposition of sanctions against the Islamic republic over the pastmonths.
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The FATF has set a deadline for Iran to complete reforms, which would”bring it into line with global norms or face consequences.”
The CFT treaty was adopted by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 9, 1999, andis designed to criminalize financing of terrorism, in addition promotingcooperation to prevent and investigate the financing of such acts. – APP
