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The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has said that China and Russia have urged Tehran to adopt a series of rules by the global money laundering watchdog FATF to allow trade between Iran and allies to continue smoothly.
“China and Russia have informed us that Iran’s inclusion in the FATF blacklist would have a negative impact on Iran’s banking transactions with them.“ Abdolnasser Hemmati told reporters on Wednesday.
The CBI governor said Iran should not have any worry adopting the FATF rules in its entirety as the country has its own strict controls on money laundering and financing of terrorism.
The Financial Action Task Force has given Iran until February to enact the Palermo and terrorist financing conventions. the latter known as the CFT. if the country wants a series of current controls and checks on its banking transactions fully removed.
However. Iranian authorities have expressed reservations about adopting the protocols. saying they could be taken advantage of by certain governments. especially the United States which maintains a harsh regime of sanctions against Iran.
Iran’s Expediency Council. the body which finalizes new laws and legislation. said on Wednesday that it is in no hurry to adopt the CFT laws recommended by the FATF.
Mohsen Rezayi. the secretary general of the Council. said that a forth meeting on CFT would be held on Saturday and deliberations will continue until a unified decision is reached on the issue.
Rezayi said that a worry for Iran in adopting the FATF recommendations is that the Paris-based body would force Iran to adopt additional measures in the future that would cause further problems for the country.
“Some members of the Council fear that (they) would place us in an endless tunnel so that even after adopting and implementing the 41 FATF recommendations. they would make case for new recommendations.
“They would drag their feet for five or six years and never give us privileges given to other countries.“ Rezayi told the IRIB News.
