MP: FATF Should Ensure Iran’s National Interests

Date: 26 January 2025 - 22:40

News ID: ۱۳۶۲۸۰

TEHRAN -- A member of Presiding Board of Iran’s National Security Commission said Sunday if Iran joins Financial Action Task Force (FATF) or if new changes are exerted in its provisions, the interests of Iran should be taken into consideration.
MP Behnam Saeedi touched on the review of the issue at the Expediency Council, saying preserving and safeguarding the national interests should be the criterion.
State officials, he said, should pay serious attention to the sublime remarks of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei who has repeatedly emphasized the need to preserve Iran’s dignity and national interests under any circumstances.
The issue of Iran’s membership in Paris-based FATF is one of the hotly disputed topics, with proponents and opponents each ardently sticking to their respective positions.
In 2016, Iran under the administration of president Hassan Rouhani agreed to an FATF action plan to move from the blacklist to the gray list, accepting 37 of the Western watchdog’s 41 recommendations and introducing relevant legislation to implement them.
The dispute centers around the Palermo Convention on combating transnational organized crime and the CFT Act on fighting the financing of terrorism, which the Iranian parliament approved in 2018, but the Guardian Council rejected due to their conflicts with “resistance economy guidelines”, national security policies, and “contradiction with the Sharia”.
Opponents of the FATF membership believe that with multiple U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran over the years, the approval of Palermo Convention and the CFT Act and a subsequent removal from the blacklist would not improve trade and transaction for the Islamic Republic.
Scholars say the FATF primarily reflects the preferences of power countries and is a tool for the US and Europeans to force those preferences on other jurisdictions.

The FATF’s core agenda reflects consensus among the U.S. and EU member states to paint non-compliant jurisdictions as rogue, unreliable players, thereby scaring off would-be investors.

According to IMF data, the world economy had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $105 trillion in 2023, some $90 trillion of which belonged to FATF members. The sum included about $5.2 trillion in laundered money, most of which belong to major economies.

As for terrorist financing, the FATF has never subjected the U.S. and the Europeans to its anti-terrorism standards for supporting the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) which until recently was on their list of terrorist organizations. Ironically, Paris hosts the annual meetings of the MKO which has a history of bombings, terrorist attacks, horrific murders like burning, decapitation, dismemberment, as well as money laundering and heist from banks.

The proponents of the FAFT still have a case. They argue that without membership, the development of economic relations with neighbors as spearheaded by the country’s officials will face serious challenges and costs since they are all members of the group.