Iran Has Squandered Its Chance to Avoid Sanctions

Iran Has Squandered Its Chance to Avoid Sanctions – WSJ 6/19/17, 10:21 PM

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-has-squandered-its-chance-to-avoid-sanctions-1497899727 Page 1 of 3

As the Financial Action Task Force convenes for its annual meeting
this week in Spain, it’s an opportunity for the international governing
body on combating money laundering and terrorism financing to call
for a reinstatement of sanctions against Iran.
This year’s meeting marks a critical moment for Iran, which along
with North Korea are the only two countries in the world identified by
the FATF as serious risks to global financial security. Iran received a
12-month reprieve from sanctions at last year’s FATF meeting
following the nuclear deal. It was an opportunity for Tehran to prove
its commitments to fiscal propriety and to distance itself from
funding acts of terror.
That reprieve has been for naught. One year later, Iran remains the
world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism. It has done little to enact
the anti-money laundering policies requested by the FATF. With no
proof of tangible results, the FATF must call on its members to bring
back the sanctions against Iran.
Iran’s duplicity stems from the power dynamic between President
Hassan Rouhani and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Politics and
policy are controlled by Ayatollah Khamenei and enforced via the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Mr. Rouhani doesn’t have much
of an independent policy legacy to speak of, despite his efforts to
project a moderate and more democratic veneer. Even agreeing to the
nuclear deal was ultimately Mr. Khamenei’s decision.
The powers in control in Tehran loathe what it considers to be the
West’s meddling in its domestic affairs, and often lashes out in
response to external pressure. We see this with every joint Iranian-
North Korean missile test that violates United Nations Resolution
2231. And it has been much the same for the FATF, with no change in
either Iran’s money-laundering policies or in winding down its terror
funding over the past year.
Some countries still wish to give Iran a free pass, even though the
FATF recommends that “countries should criminalise terrorist
financing on the basis of the Terrorist Financing Convention, and
should criminalise not only the financing of terrorist acts but also the
financing of terrorist organisations and individual terrorists even in
the absence of a link to a specific terrorist act or acts.”
Over the past year, Iran has continued to provide money, weapons,
training and troops to the cause of terrorism throughout the Middle
East. From the Houthis in Yemen to propping up Bashar Assad’s forces
in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and supporting Shiite militias in Iraq,
there’s no shortage of examples of Iranian influence over some of the
most violent groups in the world.
When it comes to its role in funding terrorism, Iran has gone so far as
to dub organizations such as Hezbollah a “liberation movement” to
create a loophole in its 2015 terrorist-financing legislation. This is
unacceptable. The FATF should reinstate sanctions against Tehran
until it adopts a credible legal architecture to combat the financing of
terrorism. Reinstating this global label would warn the financial
community to avoid business with Iran.
Money laundering poses its own business risks and is a threat to the
safety and soundness of Western financial institutions. The Iranian
regime uses its network of ostensibly legitimate business supporters
to conceal the origins of illegally obtained money. This potentially
makes financial institutions unwitting participants in a moneylaundering
operation, tarnishing their reputation and increasing their
liability for massive fines and penalties.
The FATF is primed to provide a thorough and just assessment of
Iran’s efforts in the past year. We hope it does so. The nuclear deal
provided the space and opportunity for Iran to demonstrate its
commitment to stopping the flow of funds to terror groups and rolling
back its money-laundering operations. But Iran squandered this
opportunity.
We encourage the FATF to not only call on its members to reinstate
sanctions against Iran, but that they implement more-stringent
resolutions as the organization itself recommends for every
jurisdiction that poses a threat to the global financial system.

Mr. Lieberman, the former U.S. senator from Connecticut and 2000
Iran Has Squandered Its Chance to Avoid Sanctions – WSJ 6/19/17, 10:21 PM
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-has-squandered-its-chance-to-avoid-sanctions-1497899727 Page 3 of 3
Democratic vice-presidential nominee, is chairman of United Against
Nuclear Iran. Mr. Kirk, the former U.S. senator from Illinois, is senior
advisor at UANI.
Appeared in the June 20, 2017, print edition.
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