Economy minister, while stressing that no commitment has been given to Financial Action Task Force (FATF), voiced Iran's readiness to launch conditional cooperation with the international body.
Earlier in June, a financial action plan was handed to Iran by FATF which needed to become operational for inclusion of Iran on the list of partner countries, Ali Tayebnia told IRIB.
“Iranian government’s response to FATF was that a regulation will be passed to address their concerns as well as that Iran is ready to launch conditional cooperation with FATF,” he continued.
“Once the issue was discussed at the Anti-Money Laundering Supreme Council, experts realized that majority of FATF statements are in line with domestic regulations which had long been pursued and implemented inside the country.”
Economy minister said “given that a number of measures would entail amending some laws, no commitment could be given to FATF on behalf of the government or the Parliament.”
“As a result, we voiced Iran’s readiness to conditionally run the financial action plan,” underlined the official adding “conditional cooperation proved to be the best strategy since upon rejection of the plan, Iran would have been accused of financing terrorism or money laundering.”
Ali Tayebnia underscored that FATF merely recommends countries to be keep a wary eye on violations rather than to provide evidence on lack of contravention.