The Financial Action Task Force has invited Islamic Republic representatives to attend talks in Spain aimed at ending a seven-year impasse over the country’s blacklisting, Iran’s economy minister said.
“After the approval of Iran’s accession to the Palermo Convention, the FATF deadlock has been resolved after seven years, and Iran has now been invited for talks,” Ali Madanizadeh said in a Friday interview on state television.
The Financial Information Center, part of Iran’s Supreme Council for Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, confirmed the news on its website, saying that Hadi Khani, secretary of the council, had been invited to take part in the negotiations.
The direct talks in Madrid will address the process of normalizing Iran’s case, suspending countermeasures, and removing the country from the FATF blacklist, according to Tehran’s official statement.
Iran’s UN ambassador Saeed Iravani wrote to Secretary-General António Guterres on August 5 announcing that, on government orders, the ratification document for the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime—signed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi—was being submitted.
Iran’s parliament passed the bill to adopt the convention in 2017, but the Guardian Council blocked it until the Expediency Council approved it in May this year. The years-long failure to ratify it left Iran unable to establish normal financial links abroad, even after the 2015 nuclear deal offered partial economic relief.
Joining the FATF and related conventions was a campaign pledge of Masoud Pezeshkian in the 2024 presidential election.
On May 21, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf formally notified President Pezeshkian of the law’s enactment, enabling Iran’s accession to the Palermo Convention, one of the FATF’s four core treaties.
Tehran has already joined two others: the Vienna Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and the UN Convention against Corruption.
The only outstanding FATF instrument is the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), designed to curb funding for armed groups and improve cross-border cooperation in tracking and cutting such flows.
The Islamic Republic has for years provided financial support to groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which are designated as terrorist organizations by much of the international community.
In May, Expediency Council spokesman Mohsen Dehnavi said the CFT would be addressed in upcoming sessions.
Even if Iran secures removal from the FATF blacklist, the looming prospect of UN sanctions snapback could render the move moot.
The snapback mechanism, which European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal have threatened to trigger if no deal is reached with Iran by the end of this month, would restore UN sanctions lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), from which the US unilaterally withdrew in 2018.
International banking tools may be available, but renewed sanctions could block trade even with long-standing partners such as China and Russia.
