With Ayatollah Khamenei’s open objection, joining the FATF is now out of Iran's agenda

Tabnak - While the Iranian Parliament has been recently discussing Iran’s possible joining the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), the leader of the Islamic Republic made it clear that the country should not accept the international conventions devised by the world powers.

During a meeting with Iran’s Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani and a number of parliamentarians in Tehran, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei provided the legislative branch with guidelines about joining international conventions.

Ayatollah Khamenei cautioned the parliamentarians against the content of international conventions which are mostly drawn up by hegemonic powers, adding that the parties that later join those treaties play no role in drafting them.

The conventions are then ratified by the governments, which are either aligned with those powers, intimidated by them, or accompany them in their policies, and thus take on an apparently international disposition.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that hence, when an independent country like the Islamic Republic chooses to refuse such conventions, it is subjected to severe criticism. "Why don't you accede to a convention when 150 countries have already done so?" the critics would say, according to the Leader.

The Leader urged the Parliament to act independently and pass its own laws on various subjects, including terrorism and money laundering.

Although the Iranian parliament was recently on the verge of passing a legislation on joining the FATF, disagreements between two parliamentarian factions caused the vote on the issue to be suspended for two months. Now, with the Supreme Leader openly objecting Iran’s accession to the convention, it is expected that the members of parliament put aside the FATF legislation.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei deplored the Saudi-led military offensive to seize Yemen’s lifeline port, saying the US-backed assault is yet another indicator of the evil nature of bullying powers.

He said that the “bloody” and “criminal” attacks against Hudaydah by a number of countries possessing advanced weapons and with an aim to strip the Yemeni people of their control over a vital seaport “is another example of the evil nature of world bullies.”

The Leader also pointed to the US policy of separating migrant children from their families, and criticized the harrowing nature of the practice. “The Americans, though, carry out the separation “with utmost malevolence,” the Leader noted.

Ayatollah Khamenei said, “These enemies of humanity exercise animosity against the Islamic Republic because of the Iranian people’s steadfastness and egalitarianism.”

“But by divine grace and through domestic resoluteness, the Iranian nation will be victorious against the United States and other enemies,” the Leader asserted.

He also described Iran’s enemies as ransom-seekers and bullies incarnate, and noted that “the [Islamic] establishment, nation, and authorities will never bow down to bully tactics.”