BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 7. Iran will reduce the financial restrictions imposed against the country by the current government efforts, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Abdolnaser Hemmati wrote on his X page, Trend reports.
According to him, President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian was informed about the current and necessary steps on the normalization of the country's issue in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), given the efforts of some other countries over the creation of financial restrictions against Iran, which is one of the reasons for the effectiveness of the sanctions applied to Iran.
Hemmati explained that these steps are horses of a different color compared to the issues splashed across the mass media.
The minister said that within the framework of the country's national interest, it's planned to take the necessary steps to stop FATF's mutual action and lift restrictions.
Moreover, steps will be taken to eliminate existing concerns about joining the FATF in the country as a result of the cooperation of the economic circles with the Supreme National Security Council, he added.
The FATF of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an intergovernmental body that regulates the rules for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. At the last meeting of this organization, Iran was warned that if the country's program of steps is not improved, Iran may be added to the list of non-cooperative countries. Iran has complied with 37 out of 41 FATF steps.
The remaining four steps or conventions fall under the scope of the legislation. "Amendments to the Law on Combating Money Laundering," "Amendments to the Law on Combating the Financing of Terrorism," "Accession to the International Convention on Combating Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo")," and Accession to the International Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) have been drafted by the Iranian government and sent to the parliament. Although the four conventions were approved by the parliament and sent to the Advisory Council, the CFT conventions and the Palermo Convention have not yet been approved by the mentioned council.
FATF was established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 group to combat money laundering. The organization has 37 members and its secretariat is located in Paris.
Iran has been blacklisted by the FATF since 2007, and retaliatory measures have been officially imposed against Tehran since 2009. Thus, countries had to be cautious in financial and banking exchanges with Iran. Since 2016, diplomatic steps have delayed the introduction of retaliatory measures against Iran.
The financial group FATF placed Iran on the list of non-cooperative countries (blacklist) on February 21, 2020.
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