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shown no sign of being willing to turn away shipments at the behest of Washington. Iran is also important to India because of its Chabahar port. Located on the Gulf of Oman as Iran’s only oceanic port, it is directly accessible to Indian ships sailing the Indian Ocean and New Delhi is jointly developing Chabahar to build it up as a transit hub from which it can send exports to Afghanistan and Central Asia via Iranian railways and highways. Alternative routes through Pakistan are not accessible to India given the two countries’ difficult relations.
India and Iran have long-standing political and economic ties and Swaraj on May 28 met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New Delhi to build support against the US rejection of the nuclear accord. Zarif has made similar visits to Beijing, Moscow and Brussels in recent weeks.
2.3 Iranian parliamentary commission agrees anti-terrorism banking rules but with caveats
Iran’s Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission has approved Iran’s accession into the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing Terrorism (CFT), albeit with caveats on the definition of "terrorism", Tasnim News Agency reported on May 29.
The CFT debate in parliament, which took place as part of the wider Financial Action Task Force (FATF) implementation, prompted a passionate battle between reformers and so-called traditionalist “hardliners” who present the new rules as a threat to the funding Iran says it provides as extraterritorial support in Iraq and Syria. The reformers frame the move as something which will help clarify that Iran is an international player in the banking system.
Six preconditions drawn up by the legislature include the need to define what can accurately be listed as terrorism and rules which are designed to protect Iran’s actions in the Middle East. Some of the points had not been made public as of May 30.
Deputy Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Kamal Dehqani Firouzabad said that after lengthy discussions on the bill, the security committee approved it, according to IRNA. The bill now goes to a general vote on the floor of parliament. However, even with the pre-conditions added, there is no guarantee that it will pass into law given the suspicions of many MPs that the FATF rules will restrict Iran's financing of battalions and military advisors in Syria and Iraq.
On May 8, the parliament passed an amended FATF anti-money laundering bill . I t includes provisions aimed at assisting Iran’s banks in overcoming international banking hurdles, including the shutting down of all bureaux de change that do not hold specific licences.
However, in recent days several groups of MPs have concluded that there may be no point in accepting CFT or FATF restrictive controls at this point given the new context caused by Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal on May 8. The deal re-enabled international banking relations with Iran, but US sanctions that are to follow the Trump withdrawal will aim to scupper them.
7 IRAN Country Report June 2018 www.intellinews.com