Speaker of Parliament: We Will Seek the 'Complete Opinion' of the Leader Regarding the Anti-Terrorism Financing Bill

A day after the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic called for the abandonment of bills related to money laundering and Iran's accession to the convention on combating the financing of terrorism, the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly announced that the 'complete opinion of the Leader' would be sought in reviewing such bills. According to Fars News Agency, Ali Larijani stated on Thursday, June 21, on the sidelines of the Supreme Council of Provinces meeting, in response to reporters' questions regarding Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks the previous day and the fate of the bill for Iran's accession to the convention on combating the financing of terrorism, 'We will definitely discuss this issue with him' and that based on the Leader's directives, 'we will pursue it in the Parliament.' The Supreme Leader had described international conventions a day earlier as 'cooked up' in the 'think tanks of great powers for their own interests' and asked the Parliament to independently pass related laws if necessary. The Speaker specifically referred to bills related to 'various conventions and the CFT issue' but did not provide details on the review process of these bills and how Ali Khamenei would intervene in them. The convention on combating the financing of terrorism is one of the UN treaties aimed at international cooperation to cut off financial resources for terrorist groups, adopted in 1999, with 187 countries having joined it to date. The government of Hassan Rouhani submitted the bill for Iran's accession to this convention to the Parliament last December, but following intensified protests against this bill, the Parliament voted about two weeks ago to keep the bill in abeyance for two months. In recent months, the Speaker had stated that the Supreme Leader had no opinion on this bill and three related bills. Ali Motahari, the Deputy Speaker, also reported that the issues with these bills had been resolved in 'connection with the Leader's office.' The aim of the four bills submitted by Hassan Rouhani's government to the Parliament includes 'joining the convention on combating organized crime,' 'joining the convention on combating the financing of terrorism,' 'amending the anti-money laundering law,' and 'amending the law on combating the financing of terrorism,' with the goal of removing Iran from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist. Opponents of Iran's accession to these conventions cite concerns about blocking financial aid to 'Hamas' and 'Hezbollah,' two groups that the U.S. and several other countries consider 'terrorist.' Mahmoud Sadqi, a representative from Tehran, also mentioned the involvement of the 'seven-headed dragon of corruption in the banking network' as another reason for some opposition to the approval of these bills. The Basel Governance Research Institute reported two years ago that Iran had the highest 'money laundering risk' for the third consecutive year among 149 countries. The constitution of the Islamic Republic considers the leadership of the Supreme Leader to be 'absolute,' and since at least 2002, Ayatollah Khamenei has directly intervened in the affairs of the three branches of government by issuing directives referred to as 'government decrees.' Although the constitution mentions the Parliament as the legislative body in 'general matters,' Khamenei's interventions in parliamentary affairs have continued throughout various periods. Examples include preventing the seventh Parliament from initiating any impeachment proposals in the last months of Mohammad Khatami's presidency, his directive to the sixth Parliament to abandon the amendment of the press law, granting permission for withdrawals from the currency reserve fund to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government without parliamentary approval, allowing an 11-day delay in introducing his economic minister to the Parliament, and issuing a government decree that led to questioning representatives from Ahmadinejad in 2012.