Sadeghi: The Expediency Council Has Not Rejected the Bill to Amend Anti-Money Laundering Law

Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, tweeted that the Expediency Council has "not rejected" the bill to amend the anti-money laundering law and that some are trying to imply its rejection to create "tension in the currency market." If the Islamic Republic does not join the regulations related to money laundering, Iran's international banking transactions will face difficulties; the deadline for deciding on Iran's accession to these regulations ends in 21 days. Sadeghi's tweet comes after several Iranian media reported yesterday that the Expediency Council declared the bill to amend the anti-money laundering law, one of four bills related to the implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regulations, as inconsistent with "the general policies of resilient economy, encouraging investment, food security, and economic security." Opponents of Iran's accession to FATF regulations, mainly from the opponents of Hassan Rouhani's government, argue that this would block financial assistance to "Hamas" and "Hezbollah." Proponents of Iran's accession to this treaty argue that its opponents fear economic transparency and the prevention of banking corruption. The bill to amend the anti-money laundering law was presented to the parliament by Rouhani's government to prevent Iran from being placed on the FATF's blacklist against money laundering. Some media interpreted the council's objections to this bill as a rejection of the bill by the Expediency Council. However, according to Mahmoud Sadeghi's statement, the council only expressed its position regarding the compatibility of the bill with general policies and did not reject the bill after the parliament insisted on its approval. Sadeghi wrote that the "widespread re-publication of the council's opinion" dated September 4 regarding the compatibility of the bill with general policies and "portraying it as a rejection of the parliament's approval, given its impact on creating tension in the currency market, deserves consideration." He did not provide further explanation and used the hashtag "seven-headed dragon of corruption" in his tweet without mentioning any specific person or group. The Deputy Chairman of the Legal and Judicial Commission of the parliament also reported that "objections" from the Expediency Council had been raised regarding the bill to amend the anti-money laundering law and stated that if these objections are accepted by the Guardian Council and the bill is referred to the parliament, representatives will begin examining it. Yahya Kamali-Pour also did not mention the rejection of this bill by the Expediency Council in his conversation with ISNA. He referred to the status of examining the bill for Iran's accession to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo), stating that the Guardian Council raised formal objections to the Palermo bill, which the commission and the parliament resolved. He added that following the raising of substantive objections based on Article 110 of the Constitution by the Expediency Council and their acceptance by the Guardian Council, a working group has been formed from the Research Center, the Expediency Council, the Guardian Council, and the Legal Commission to address the objections and then refer it for examination to the commission. These news reports about the uncertain fate of these bills in Iran come as the FATF's deadline for Iran to approve the four bills and subsequently exit the gray list and enter the safe green zone for financial and banking transactions ends on October 1, 2018, which is 21 days away. ISNA reported that while there are 55 days until the start of U.S. oil and energy sanctions and 21 days until the end of the FATF's three-month deadline for banking transactions to be conducted without issues, the fate of three bills is still unclear, "especially as the U.S. intends to intensify sanctions from November 4." These four bills include the bill for Iran's accession to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo), the amendment of the anti-money laundering law, the amendment of the law against the financing of terrorism, and Iran's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT). Of the four bills related to the implementation of FATF regulations in Iran, only the bill against the financing of terrorism has been approved and enacted, which is an internal law in Iran and differs from accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an intergovernmental organization established in 1989 at the initiative of the G7 countries to conduct assessments of the status of anti-money laundering laws in various financial markets worldwide. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic called for the abandonment of Iran's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism on the last day of Khordad and asked the parliament to independently enact its laws regarding money laundering and the fight against the financing of terrorism.