Iraqi Warns; Risk of ISIS Using Iran's Financial System

Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for International Affairs, warned on Thursday about the potential risk of ISIS utilizing Iran's financial system and emphasized the need to combat ISIS in the financial and banking sectors. Speaking at the unveiling of the book 'Terrorism and Cyber Space in the Middle East' in Karaj, Araghchi cautioned that if Iran does not take care, ISIS might use Iran's financial systems to meet its financial needs. According to the senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, 'ISIS uses compromised accounts to achieve this goal [of using Iran's financial systems].' The Deputy Foreign Minister also referred to Iran's proximity to Afghanistan, stating, 'Drug trafficking groups may engage in money laundering within our financial systems.' Abbas Araghchi stated, 'ISIS uses international financial systems to finance itself, and FATF tools have been developed to combat terrorist financing.' Recently, the cooperation of Hassan Rouhani's government and the economic and banking team of the eleventh government with FATF to remove Iran from the blacklist of this group and facilitate international banking cooperation with Iran's banking network has sparked controversy and divided political forces in Iran into pro and con groups. FATF, the 'Financial Action Task Force,' is an intergovernmental organization aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing globally. Iran was placed on this group's blacklist in 2009, which significantly complicates international financial transactions for Tehran. Conservative opponents and critics of the Iranian government have strongly attacked these cooperations. Some of these conservatives even compared Iran's cooperation with this group to the Turkmenchay Treaty, describing it as the second Turkmenchay. Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, recently responded to critics by stating that the government has initiated measures to prevent money laundering in Iran, but suddenly some people, according to him, portray 'FATF' as an impure issue. Rouhani also emphasized the need to prove Iran's non-support for money laundering and terrorism. It seems that the remarks of the Deputy Foreign Minister are in line with the ongoing struggle over Iran's cooperation and the government's and Central Bank's actions for financial and banking transparency. According to Abbas Araghchi, 'Just as we must fight ISIS and Takfiri groups on the battlefield, we also need to combat ISIS in the banking, financial, and cyber spaces.' The deputy of Mohammad Javad Zarif concluded by emphasizing that 'let's not forget that the world's focus in the fight against terrorism is directed towards terrorist groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban, and the world is focused on preventing ISIS and Takfiri groups from using international financial systems.' Ali Tayebnia, Iran's Minister of Economy, had previously emphasized in response to criticisms that 'without cooperation with the Financial Action Task Force, despite the lifting of nuclear sanctions, international banking exchanges would still not be possible.'