Guardian Council Again Rejects Iran's Accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism

With less than two months remaining until the Financial Action Task Force's deadline for Iran, the Guardian Council has rejected the bill for Iran's accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism, the most important bill related to the implementation of these regulations. The Guardian Council announced that 20 previous objections to the parliament's approval of this bill still remain, rejecting the approval for the second time. Fars News Agency published the Guardian Council's letter to the Speaker of Parliament, written on December 24. The letter states that, except for two objections, the previous objections of the Guardian Council to this bill "remain in effect." The Guardian Council had previously raised 22 objections to the parliament's approval and rejected it. On December 5, Iranian parliament representatives agreed to the Guardian Council's amendments for Iran's accession to the international convention against the financing of terrorism. The bill for Iran's accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism is referred to as the "most important" bill related to the implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regulations. Of the other three FATF bills, including the "Bill to Amend the Law on Combating the Financing of Terrorism," the "Bill to Amend the Law on Combating Money Laundering," and the "Palermo Bill," only the first has been approved by the Guardian Council, while the others are still pending approval from this council or the Expediency Discernment Council. Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, stated that this body might complete its review of the "Amendment to the Money Laundering Law" next week. Mr. Bahonar also predicted that Iran would approve the bills related to the FATF. Besides Mr. Bahonar, some other members of the Expediency Discernment Council, including Ahmad Tavakoli and Majid Ansari, have also predicted that these bills will be approved in this body. This optimism comes as the "Supervisory Board on the Implementation of General Policies of the System," which began its work in the Expediency Discernment Council last year, has raised objections to these bills. Previously, Ali Larijani, the Speaker and some other parliament representatives reported that European banks and even banks from "friendly countries" have stated that the condition for cooperation with Iran is the approval of the bills related to the implementation of FATF regulations. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani emphasized that if the bills related to FATF regulations are not approved, financial transactions for Iran will become 20% more expensive, stating that the costs of not passing these bills and the absence of the JCPOA should be communicated to the people and their opinions sought. Opponents of Iran's accession to FATF regulations, mainly from the opponents of Rouhani's government, argue that this would block financial assistance to "Hamas" and "Hezbollah." However, the parliament's approval states that the Islamic Republic does not consider groups that engage in "legitimate defense" as terrorist groups. Nevertheless, the Guardian Council has deemed other clauses of this approval as "negating" this precondition. Supporters of Iran's accession to this treaty argue that its opponents fear economic transparency and the prevention of banking corruption. The FATF expressed regret on October 19 that most of the issues related to Iran's commitments remain unresolved, while extending Iran's suspension from the group's blacklist for another four months, which was welcomed by Iranian officials. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has advised Iran to implement anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures before the February 2019 deadline set by the FATF.