[JPost] As the citizens of Iran flocked to the voting booths, the Iranian economy took a painful hit on Friday at the conclusion of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary, when the organization decided to return Iran to the 'blacklist' of countries involved in bankrolling and financing terror.The result: More than 200 member nations and territories will comply with FATF sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The ban will likely end talks between Iran and the European Union about exploiting the INSTEX vehicle for promoting trade in a way that circumvents United States sanctions.
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Furthermore, it will more generally widen the expanding chasm between Tehran and the EU, pushing Europe closer to the US in the standoff.
The FATF moved the Islamic Republic from a blacklist to a sort of gray-list in 2016, which meant much greater access to the international banking system, but a ticking clock to come into compliance with anti-terrorism financial measures.
In addition to re-blacklisting Iran, a large number of new countries entered the gray-list of non-compliant countries, from which Iran has just been ousted, including Albania, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Uganda. Trinidad and Tobago was the only country te be taken off of the gray-list without landing in the blacklist.
Pakistan won an extra four months to meet international anti-terrorism financing norms, as the FATF decided to keep it on the gray-list for now despite missing recent deadlines to comply with their own internationally agreed-upon deals.
Until Friday's decision, the only other country on the FATF blacklist was North Korea.
The Israeli delegation to the FATF plenum was led by by Dr. Shlomit Wagman-Ratner and other representatives of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Prohibition Authority in the Ministry of Justice.