The Expediency Council’s Saturday session dedicated to reviewing the Palermo bill, and whether Iran will join the convention ended with members of the Council postponing their decision.

Iran Press/Iran news: The Expediency Council’s Saturday meeting on joining the UN Convention on Transnational Crime (Palermo bill) ended without a clear-cut result, leaving the fate of the bill uncertain until the next Iranian year (starting 21 March), a member of the council said.

Upon the request of Government and Parliament representatives, the fate of the Palermo bill and CFT will be decided by the Expediency Council, which will be given more time to scrutinize the bills, member of Expediency Council Seyyed Mostafa Mirsalim said on Saturday.

According to a Mehr News Agency report, another member the Council, Gholamreza Mesbahi also said that the next session to review the bills has been postponed until next Iranian year.

The two Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-related bills have already been approved by lawmakers in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) and need to gain the approval of the Expediency Council after they were rejected by the Guardian Council.

The bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT) was rejected by the Guardian Council in early November due to some flaws and ambiguities inherent in the CFT bill, deemed contrary to Iran's Constitution.

On 5 January 2019, the Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaie said that most of the flaws or ambiguities that led to the rejection of the bill on Iran's accession to CFT by the Council, remained unchanged, and were still problematic.

The Guardian Council Spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaie said recently that the Expediency Council will probably approve both bills.

The Palermo bill needs at least two third of the votes to be endorsed by the Expediency Council. 101/211/201

Read More:

Iran Expediency Council likely to approve CFT, Palermo bills: spokesman

Expediency Council postpones decision on Palermo bill

Expediency Council to continue reviewing accession to Palermo Convention