Defense Minister of the Medicalian Government Opposes FATF; 'It is a Pretext to Pressure Iran'

The Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Support in the government of Masoud Medicalian claimed that the issue of joining the FATF is 'a pretext to pressure Iran.' Aziz Nasirzadeh, on Friday, March 1, at a conference in District 17 of Tehran, strongly criticized those who say 'if there is no FATF, our problems will not be solved.' The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced on March 1 at the end of its meeting that since Iran has not yet approved laws related to the financing of terrorism and organized crime, the country remains on the group's blacklist. The U.S. Treasury Secretary welcomed the FATF's countermeasures against Iran. Previously, Masoud Medicalian, the President of Iran, acknowledged that 'we have no choice but to resolve the FATF issue to lift the sanctions.' However, the Minister of Defense of his government stated on Friday: 'Whether we become a member or not, FATF is a pretext for applying pressure on Iran.' The Minister of Defense of the Islamic Republic of Iran, speaking at a conference related to the casualties of the war, referred to such conferences as 'the chain of our power' and said: 'The enemy poses a serious threat to us in the cognitive, cultural, and soft war domains.' He also claimed that 'Iran is a constant target of Western and American pretexts' and stated: 'No matter how much Iran concedes, a new pretext will always be found.' Iran was removed from the FATF's 'blacklist' in 2016 but returned to it in 2020 due to failure to comply with the group's recommendations. The government of Hassan Rouhani presented four bills to the parliament to implement FATF recommendations, of which two bills, 'Palermo' and 'CFT,' were rejected by the Guardian Council and have since remained in the Expediency Discernment Council. In recent years, there have been comments regarding Ali Khamenei's agreement to reconsider these two bills; however, some experts and economic analysts have pointed to the role of these comments in controlling the market and currency prices. Opponents of these two bills have repeatedly stated that their approval would mean cutting Iran's financial support to militia groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon. The FATF is an intergovernmental organization that provides international recommendations to combat 'money laundering and terrorist financing.' Many governments, as well as financial and banking institutions, voluntarily implement these recommendations, and currently, only Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar are on this organization's blacklist. Recently, some Iranian media reported that this minister of the Medicalian government is one of the opponents of lifting internet filtering; this military official is a member of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace.