Washington 0
21 February 2020

The Financial Action Task Force announced that “given Iran’s failure to enact the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions (CFT) in line with the FATF Standards, the FATF fully lifts the suspension of counter-measures and calls on its members and urges all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures”. “Iran will remain on the FATF statement on [High Risk Jurisdictions Subject to a Call for Action] until the full Action Plan has been completed”, the statement added. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo applauded the decision and said “the regime must face consequences for its continued failure to abide by international norms, in particular its inaction in ratifying the Palermo and CFT… Iran must cease its reckless behaviour and act like a normal nation if it wants its isolation to end”. President Rouhani indicated that “the administration and Majlis had clear views and they did all executive measures and approved all four bills, including Palermo and CFT”. “We were trying not to let America and the Zionist Regime [ie, Israel] announce us as the violator of these actions”, Rouhani maintained, adding that “the FATF took the undecidedness of a group [in the Iranian government], which is out of the authority of the administration and the parliament, as pretext to make a decision against the interests of the Iranian nation, and as it was expected, it made the U.S. happy, justifying intensification of unjust, inhumane sanctions”.

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