TEHRAN, Iran — In its latest plenary meeting June 23, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) extended a temporary suspension of countermeasures against Iran for another year. The FATF, however, stated on its website that it will keep monitoring progress in the implementation of its action plan in Iran’s banking system. While President Hassan Rouhani's administration had sought a permanent lifting of the group’s sanctions, pro-Reform media still hailed the decision as a positive signal to foreign investors observing Iran’s developments.

The intergovernmental body, comprised of 35 member jurisdictions and two regional organizations, avoided coupling Iran with North Korea on its so-called blacklist. But it could have helped Iranian moderates push back hard-liners at home had it met a stronger commitment to the spirit of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), critics argue in Tehran.

A week after the anti-money laundering group’s meeting, the conservative newspaper Vatan-e Emrooz made fun of the Rouhani administration for supposedly having failed to keep six world powers committed to the 2015 nuclear deal. In an article republished by Fars News Agency on June 28, the newspaper referred to an official letter written by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to the FATF voicing criticism of the group’s latest decision on Iran. The letter had labeled the decision as “politically motivated,” the newspaper said.

The JCPOA, implemented in January 2016, had promised sanctions relief in a way that Iran’s banking system would immediately be reconnected to global financial institutions. The promise failed to materialize due to the remaining US unilateral sanctions on Iran. None of the world’s big banks has yet agreed to cooperate with Iranian banks for fear of punitive measures by the US Treasury Department. The latter has already weakened Rouhani’s standing within the Islamic Republic, as hard-liners have kept attacking the moderate president over what they described a “bad deal” with the West.