TEHRAN - Laya Joneidi, the presidential aide for legal affairs, said on Wednesday that based on the constitution, there is no fault in the Palermo bill.

“There is no fault with the Palermo bill based on the constitution. The Guardian Council and parliament should come to an agreement on this issue and send it to the government,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting.

She also said that the Palermo bill was approved by the parliament and the faults with it were corrected.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on October 18 that it has given Iran a final deadline of February 2020 to tighten its laws against money laundering in compliance with the global watchdog’s financial standards.

“If before February 2020, Iran does not enact the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions in line with the FATF Standards, then the FATF will fully lift the suspension of counter-measures and call on its members and urge all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures, in line with recommendation 19,” the FATF said in a statement, Reuters reported.

The government is pushing for the approval of the FATF.

In October 2018, the parliament voted to join the FATF. However, the Guardian Council rejected it. Now the ball is in the Expediency Council’s court. 

When there is a dispute between parliament and the Guardian Council the issue is referred to as the Expediency Council for final arbitration.

One of the actions Iran is required to take to appease the FATF is joining the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), which is also called the Palermo Convention, a 2000 United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime.

The other action is to ratify the CFT, the convention combating financing of terrorism.

NA/PA