What Iran has done so far to conform to international standards concerning anti-money-laundering and combating terrorism financing initiatives will be sufficient for the Financial Action Task Force to permanently terminate all countermeasures against the country, said a deputy economy minister.
"Iran expects that the decision made last June, based on which countermeasures against the country were suspended, would become permanent and that is what Iran asks for," Hossein Qazavi also told Iranian Bank and Economy News Agency (IBENA).
The intergovernmental FATF, which is the global standard-setting body for AML/CFT, kept Iran on its blacklist but welcomed Tehran's initiative to conform to international standards and called for a one-year suspension of restrictions.
Noting that Iran has made considerable headways in embracing international standards, Qazavi said a full report of all regulations, policies and executive measures in Iran has been submitted to the member countries of FATF.
“Considering the strong arguments we made, FATF would likely be persuaded to remove countermeasures against Iran permanently,” he added.
Qazavi noted that the only thing standing in the way of such a decision would be “political issues and sabotage by a number of countries, namely the US”.
In March 2016, the Iranian Parliament adopted an AML/CFT law and declared its high-level political commitment to implementing an action plan.
Iranian authorities have requested an assessment by the International Monetary Fund on Iran’s compliance with the AML/CFT regime against the FATF standards, which will take place late 2018.
Qazavi, who hopes political agendas would not hinder the technical progression of affairs, said countermeasures against Iran “must surely be removed on the basis of technical facts” because the country has had the level of progress required by FATF standards within the framework devised by the organization.