Iran gets deadline to fix terror funding
Global watchdog to blacklist Tehran if it fails to meet 10 promises
Aglobal financial watchdog Force has given Iran until February to crack down on terrorism funding or risk deeper economic isolation.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said yesterday it would effectively blacklist Iran if it doesn’t fulfill 10 promises made to pass and enforce laws against financing terrorist groups.
Worried about renewed US sanctions over its nuclear programme, Iran’s parliament voted this month to join a global convention against terror financing, but the bill hasn’t been ratified yet.
The FATF, an intergovernmental group based in Paris, gave Iran four more months to comply. If it doesn’t, the FATF could take measures further discouraging or hindering foreign
investment in Iran. For Iran, access to finance has become particularly pressing since the US walked out of a 2015 nuclear deal and began reimposing sanctions.
Among the further steps demanded by the FATF was for Iran to identify and freeze extremist assets in line with UN Security Council resolutions.
Another was for Tehran to remove an exemption from its legislation that allows financing towards groups deemed to be attempting to end “foreign occupation, colonialism and racism”.
Yemen’s Vice-President Ali Mohsen has accused Iran of sponsoring a “subversive and terrorist” scheme in the region including his country.
Iran is a major ally of Yemen’s Al Houthi militants, who deposed the country’s internationally-recognised government in late 2014, prompting the intervention of a Saudi-led alliance to reinstate the legitimate administration.
“The political leadership led by [Yemeni] President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and with sincere support from the coalition’s countries led by Saudi Arabia, is determined to go ahead with facing Al Houthis, who have subjected Yemenis to ravages and targeted brothers and friends as part of a subversive and terrorist project supported and sponsored by Iran,” Yemen’s official news agency Saba quoted Mohsen as saying yesterday.
Firing intensified
In recent months, Al Houthis have intensified firing missiles towards the Saudi territory mainly from the northern province of Saada near the Saudi border.
Mohsen made the remarks at a meeting with Governor of Saada Hadi Tarshan, according to Saba. At their meeting in Riyadh, the governor updated Mohsen on progress recently made by government forces, supported by the Arab coalition, against Al Houthis in Saada, a major stronghold of the militia.
Saudi forces, including ground and navy personnel, had ambushed Al Houthi militiamen in Yemen near the Saudi border, Al Arabiya reported yesterday.
The ambush targeted the self-styled group “Battalion of Death” with artillery and helicopter fire as well as strikes from coalition jets, military sources said. The attack killed at least 20 militants and destroyed their supplies, according to the report.