*Tehran – The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) has welcomed adecision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to continue suspensionof counter-measures on Iran.*

‘FATF made the right decision by recognizing the progress that Iran hasmade to reform its banking laws, while ensuring that Iran fulfills theterms of its Action Plan in order to receive the full benefit of beingremoved from the FATF ‘blacklist’, it said in a statement following FATF’sdecision on February 24, State run IRNA news agency has reported.

‘By showing itself unwilling to give in to pressure from the Trumpadministration and outside advocacy groups like United Against NuclearIran, which were pushing for the re-imposition of counter-measures againstIran, FATF smartly avoided politicization of its work and protected itsintegrity as a technical body assessing countries’ anti-money launderingand terrorist financing laws.’

FATF is an inter-governmental body that sets and promotes standards forcombating money laundering and terrorist financing. It engages in atechnical assessment of countries’ anti-money laundering and countering thefinancing of terrorism laws and provides assistance to countries seeking toreform their laws in compliance with international standards.

Iran has been identified on FATF’s ‘blacklist’ since 2008 for what itcalled persistent AML/CFT (Anti-Money Laundering/Combatting the Financingof Terrorism) deficiencies. Following the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed inJune 2016 to an Action Plan to undertake domestic reforms to its AML/CFTlaws with technical assistance provided by FATF. In return to thiscommitment, FATF suspended its call for counter-measures against Iran for aperiod of 12 months.

‘Iran has made significant progress meeting its Action Plan, including bypassing new laws relating to money laundering… FATF’s decision to renewthe suspension of counter-measures recognizes the progress that Iran hasmade thus far, while ensuring that Iran take the final steps to reform itsAML/CFT laws before it receives the benefit of removal from FATF’s’blacklist’. Iran’s incentives to undertake serious reform of its bankinglaws include the potential for broader access to the global financialsystem, which has been denied Iran despite the lifting of U.S. and UNsanctions pursuant to the nuclear agreement… These steps are movingforward, yet the Trump administration and its political allies seem moreinterested in scuttling that progress due to ideological animus towardsIran rather than seeing an actual interest of the U.S. and internationalcommunity realized,’ read the statement.

The Trump administration, said NIAC, appears to have pushed hard on FATFmember-states to reject the technical assessment of the agency as to Iran’sprogress and re-impose counter-measures against Iran.

‘As is true of the nuclear agreement, the Trump administration’sideological position towards Iran renders it unable to pursue – and oftencauses it work directly against – U.S. national security interests. In thecase of the nuclear agreement, the Trump administration has antagonizedallies and jeopardized the restrictions and strict inspections that are inplace on Iran’s nuclear program. In the case of FATF, the Trumpadministration threatens to undermine the progress that Iran is makingconsistent with the FATF Action Plan to improve the transparency andintegrity of its financial sector. The Trump administration showed itsisolation once again by seeking to punish Iran through the FATF, despitethe fact that the FATF and its other member-states recognize the progressIran had made to reform its banking laws.’

To kill the Iran nuclear deal, NIAC added, the Trump administration hasshown itself willing to stake the reputation of international bodies,including the Financial Action Task Force and the International AtomicEnergy Agency.

‘The Trump administration is playing a dangerous game with the integrity ofglobal and multilateral institutions. Thankfully, the FATF was able toresist the Trump administration’s machinations this time around,’ thestatment said.