Review of the Palermo Bill Again Ends Without Result at the Expediency Council

According to several members of the Expediency Council, this council was unable to reach a conclusion regarding the approval or rejection of the Palermo Bill in its session on Saturday, February 16, and the decision about Iran's accession to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime has once again been postponed to the next meeting of the council. According to Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam, a member of the Expediency Council of Iran, due to the high number of supporters and opponents of Iran's accession to this convention who have registered to present their arguments, as well as the ongoing 'debate between supporters and opponents of this bill,' the council could not reach a conclusion in the Saturday session, and further discussion has been postponed to the next session. The next meeting of the Expediency Council will be held in two weeks. Mostafa Mir Salim, another member of the Expediency Council, also confirmed that 'the Palermo Bill did not reach a conclusion in today’s council meeting.' Additionally, Ahmad Tavakoli, another member of the council, explained the details of this session, stating: '12 members spoke in favor or against this bill, but since many members wanted to speak about this bill, not all members had a chance to do so, therefore it was decided that the discussion would continue in the next council meeting which will be held in two weeks.' Meanwhile, considering the expiration of the deadline set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for Iran, and according to the official website of this group, one of the agenda items for this week’s FATF meetings will be to review Iran's actions to meet the expectations of this group. At the end of this week’s working session of the group, on the upcoming Friday, Marshall Billingslea, the American president of the FATF, will announce the results of the meetings held. In recent weeks, the review of the Palermo Bill, which is one of the four bills of the government to meet the expectations of the FATF, has been on the agenda of the council, but due to the inability of the members of this council to reach a specific conclusion, the fate of this bill remains undetermined. It has been reported that in previous sessions of the council, the opinions of the legal and defense-security commissions of the Expediency Council opposing Iran's accession to this convention were announced in the council. In images published by news agencies from today’s session of the Expediency Council, the seat of Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, is empty. In recent weeks, he has not attended meetings in protest against the indecision regarding these bills. According to these images, Laya Janidi, the legal deputy of the President of Iran, and Farhad Dezhpasand, the Minister of Economy, were among the government members present at this meeting to provide explanations to the council members. Meanwhile, another bill from these four bills, which has been referred to the Expediency Council due to disagreements between the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Guardian Council, is the CFT bill, which has not even been placed on the agenda of this council yet. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on October 19, 2018, gave Iran four months to align with global standards by February 2019, which is less than two weeks away. Since the review of Iran's actions to meet the expectations of the FATF is on the agenda of this week’s FATF meeting, a report on these actions and the assessment of the group's observers regarding Iran will be presented next Friday. In the October statement from the FATF, Iran's suspension from the blacklist of this group was extended for the third time until the end of this deadline. The expectations of the FATF from Iran include criminalizing the financing of terrorism without exempting those terrorist groups that 'strive against foreign occupation, colonialism, and racism.' [The Iranian parliament, however, in its October 7 resolution still does not consider 'the legitimate popular struggles against colonial domination and foreign occupation' as part of terrorist actions.] Identifying and blocking the assets of terrorists in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions. Ensuring the implementation of a reliable regime in terms of 'necessary assessment.' Ensuring the complete independence of the financial intelligence unit and the necessity of reporting suspicious financial transactions if such transactions occur. Demonstrating how officials identify and punish unlicensed financial service providers. Approving and implementing the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions and clarifying the ability to provide legal services. Ensuring that financial institutions register all financial transactions with complete information of the sender and receiver. Considering penalties for violators of laws related to money laundering. Ensuring the approval of necessary laws and processes for the confiscation of assets as appropriate. According to a report published by the Iranian state news agency IRNA, out of 50 members of the Expediency Council, eight members have publicly expressed their opposition and four other members have expressed their support for the approval of the bills referred to this council from the four bills in discussions with the media. Mohammad Sadr, Mohammad Reza Aref, Majid Ansari, and Mohammad Reza Bahonar are among the supporters of the approval of these bills in the council, while Sadegh Larijani, Ahmad Jannati, Mohsen Rezaei, Parviz Davoodi, Ahmad Vahidi, Saeed Jalili, Ahmad Tavakoli, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Hossein Mozaffar, and Mostafa Mir Salim are among the members who have spoken against the bills regarding Iran's accession to the Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Iran's accession to the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.