EU Adds Saudi Arabia to Draft 'Terrorism Financing' List

Date: 26 January 2019 - 21:25

News ID: ۶۲۵۰۸

RIYADH (Dispatches) – The European Commission has added Saudi Arabia to a European Union draft list of countries that pose a threat to the bloc because of lax controls against "terrorism financing" and "money laundering", sources told Reuters news agency.
The move comes amid heightened international pressure on Saudi Arabia following the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The EU's list currently consists of 16 countries, including Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea, and is mostly based on criteria used by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global body of wealthy nations meant to combat "money laundering" and "terrorism financing".
The list has been updated this week, using new criteria developed by the European Commission since 2017. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries added to the updated list that is still confidential, one unidentified EU source and one unnamed Saudi source were quoted as saying.
The bloc has recently taken a new methodology, under which jurisdictions may also be blacklisted if they fail to provide sufficient information on ownership of companies or if they have lax rules on reporting suspicious transactions or monitoring financial customers.
The EU’s decision to include Saudi Arabia to its blacklist needs an endorsement by the bloc’s 28 member states before being formally adopted next week.
The updated list is still confidential, according to the two sources.
Saudi Arabia is under mounting pressure over the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate in October 2018. The killing is widely believed to have been ordered by the kingdom’s US-backed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Riyadh has sought to distance him bin Salman from the case despite US senators and the CIA’s conclusion that he was behind the murder.
The possible blacklist would further complicate Saudi Arabia’s financial ties as the EU’s banks are required to carry out additional checks on payments involving entities from listed jurisdictions.
Capital Economics halves Saudi growth forecast for 2019
Separately on Friday, a report from London-based research firm Capital Economics found that key economies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are expected to be hard hit this year as oil output drops and governments rein in spending.
Saudi Arabia, the report said, will see its growth almost cut in half to 1.3 percent in 2019, down from 2.5 percent last year.
It further predicted the kingdom’s return to austerity in the latter half of the year, saying the planned generous spending announced in the Saudi budget is likely based on dodgy assumptions.