Amoli Larijani: It is unclear whether the approval of FATF will be that impactful

While the Expediency Discernment Council is referred to as the main obstacle to the approval of FATF-related bills, the head of this council stated that due to the sanctions, it is unclear whether accepting FATF 'will be that impactful.' According to IRIB News Agency, Sadeq Amoli Larijani, during a meeting with private sector economic activists, said: 'Assume we solve the FATF issue, and SWIFT is resolved as well, what benefit does it have when they have sanctioned us from using the dollar?' Previously, several other members of this council, all appointed by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, have strongly opposed the approval of FATF-related bills. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a mechanism that provides guidelines for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and countries must join it for international financial transactions. Since 2007, Iran has often been on the 'blacklist' of this group, which has become a serious obstacle for Iran's international financial transactions. Discussions about FATF have increased with the beginning of Masoud Pezeshkian's presidency; he emphasized in his first press conference that 'we have no choice but to solve the FATF issue' and announced that he would write a letter to the Expediency Discernment Council to reactivate this case. Although Mohammad Jafar Qaimpanah, the executive deputy and head of the presidential office, announced the sending of this letter to the Expediency Discernment Council, Mostafa Mir Salim denied the receipt of such a letter by the council. A member of the Expediency Discernment Council stated that the government has not sent a letter regarding FATF. Two FATF-related bills (the bill for Iran's accession to the Palermo Convention and the bill for Iran's accession to the Terrorist Financing Convention) have been blocked in the Expediency Discernment Council for years. Nevertheless, Sadeq Amoli Larijani stated that it is necessary to 'evaluate' whether the approval of FATF would help significantly or not, and 'if its benefit is truly evident, our friends in the council will certainly not oppose it.' He also mentioned that blaming the country's problems on the unresolved FATF issue is 'not a wise or fair thing to do.' Among the four bills that Hassan Rouhani's government presented to meet FATF's demands, two were approved, but the Palermo and CFT bills (related to terrorist financing and organized crime) were not approved. Opponents of these two bills have repeatedly stated that their approval would mean cutting off Iran's financial support to militia groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, Sadeq Amoli Larijani stated that he personally supports the approval of the Palermo bill but is 'hesitant' about the CFT bill.