World financial watchdog keeps punting on Iran

Al Monitor

The world’s financial watchdog is poised to continue suspending punitive measures against Iran for six more months to avoid creating a new crisis at a time of political fragility inside the country and uncertainty over the fate of the landmark nuclear deal. US critics of Iran have urged that the country be removed from a FATF “gray list” and put back on a blacklist that includes North Korea.The group United Against a Nuclear Iran on Feb. 21 published an open letter to the head of FATF requesting that tough warnings against interaction with Iranian financial institutions be reinstated. It called efforts by the government of President Hassan Rouhani to counter terrorist financing and money laundering “nominal,” given the role played by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in regional conflicts and the Iranian economy.