TEHRAN - Abbasali Kadkhodaei, spokesman for the Guardian Council, announced on Sunday that the council had found 20 faults with the CFT - a legislation to combat financing of terrorism - and rejected it.

“The faults includes items which were against the constitution and the Islamic law and there were also items which were ambiguous for the council and we sent them back to the Majlis (parliament),” he told the Mehr news agency. 

The Iranian parliament voted in favor of the CFT on October 7. A total of 143 lawmakers, out of 268 ones present in the 290-seat parliament, voted in favor of the bill, 120 voted against and five abstained.

To become a law, however, the oversight Guardian Council should vet the bill for compliance with the Constitution.

Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Chairman Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh told reporters on Sunday that the committee will study the faults presented by the Guardian Council.

“In addition to the faults, the Guardian Council has introduced a term which, in our opinion, means rejection of the CFT,” he said.

Falahatpisheh added, “It is said in the term that a number of faults are against the national interests and the Islamic law and cannot be corrected.”

NA/PA