Amendment to Anti-Money Laundering Law Approved; CFT at the Guardian Council

A member of the Expediency Discernment Council in Iran announced that this council approved the amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Law during its session on Saturday, January 5. At the same time, the spokesperson for the Guardian Council stated that the council's objections to the CFT bill remain valid except for two cases. On the same day, Abbasali Kadkhodai, the spokesperson for the Guardian Council, announced that despite the Iranian parliament making 'numerous changes to satisfy the Guardian Council' regarding the CFT bill, these changes only addressed two of the council's objections, and 'other objections remain valid.' Both bills are part of four legislative proposals that the Islamic Republic government is committed to approving and implementing to exit the Financial Action Task Force's blacklist, aimed at reducing pressure on Iran's financial transactions with other countries. Of these four bills, two—amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law and Iran's accession to the Palermo Convention (the convention against transnational organized crime)—were to be determined by the Expediency Discernment Council, with the issue of Iran's accession to the Palermo Convention still awaiting the council's opinion. However, on the same day as the announcement of the approval of the amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Law, Abbasali Kadkhodai stated that despite the Iranian parliament's changes to the CFT bill, 'the other objections remain valid.' Previously, some parliament members referred to the bill for Iran's accession to the CFT as the 'most important' step to meet the expectations of the Financial Action Task Force from Iran, with Behrouz Namati, the spokesperson for the parliament's presiding board, stating that 'solving many of the country's current problems depends on resolving the CFT issue.' Opponents of Iran's accession to the Financial Action Task Force regulations, mainly from the opponents of President Hassan Rouhani's government, argue that this would block financial assistance to 'Hamas' and 'Hezbollah.' However, supporters of joining this treaty claim that opponents fear economic transparency and the prevention of banking corruption. Earlier in November, the Guardian Council's spokesperson stated that the council had raised 20 objections to the CFT bill and sent the Expediency Discernment Council's objections regarding the bill's non-compliance with 'the general policies of the system' to the parliament. Some forecasts suggest that the disagreement between the parliament and the Guardian Council regarding this bill will ultimately be a matter for the Expediency Discernment Council to review, and Ahmad Tavakoli, a former parliament member and current member of the council, has predicted that the issue of approving this bill will eventually be resolved. Conversely, some figures close to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic continue to insist on the non-approval of these bills, with Ahmad Alamolhoda, representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in Khorasan Razavi, recently calling the approval of bills related to the Financial Action Task Force 'the prelude to the 98 sedition.'