Japan to assist Tehran in resolving differences with FATF, says Iran official

Japan announced it would make efforts to assist Iran in sorting out its differences with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said Iranian Deputy Finance Minister Hadi Khani.

News ID: 5521

Date: 02 December 2024 - 12:14

TABNAK, Dec, 02 : His remarks came after he returned home from a meeting of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) in India.

The Iranian official had a session with Japan’s Deputy Minister of Finance for International Affairs and the head of the country’s delegation to the FATF Mitsutoshi Kajikawa on the sidelines of the meeting.

“The official ... said that the Japanese government plans to contribute to the process of normalizing relations between Iran and the FATF and be the voice of Iran in the Group of Seven as the founders of the FATF,” he said.

Khani said Kajikawa had also promised to communicate to the FATF the efforts made by Iran to fight money laundering and terrorism financing in recent years.

Iran’s current administrative government announced upon taking office in mid-summer that it would seek to sort out differences with the FATF as part of efforts to open up to the world and fix the country’s economic problems.

Iranian officials have indicated that the country should not have any worries about adopting the FATF rules in its entirety as the country has strict controls on money laundering and financing of terrorism.

That comes as some in the country still believe that certain governments, especially the United States which maintains a harsh regime of sanctions on Iran, would benefit from Iran’s decision to completely accept all FATF conventions and rules.