Hoyer Statement on the Financial Action Task Force's Decision on Iran

Statement

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement on the Financial Action Task Force's decision on Iran:

"While I commend the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for maintaining Iran on its blacklist, I am angered that FATF suspended its call for countermeasures against it. This sends mixed messages, the effect of which may be seen as a victory for Iran's mullahs. Global financial entities have resisted doing business in Iran not because - as the mullahs claim- of a U.S. conspiracy, but because Iran, by FATF's own conclusion, remains a state funder of terror and other illicit activities whose financial system is an integral part of its doing so.

"I am alarmed by actions of FATF or other bodies that give Iran's leaders any reason to believe that their country can reintegrate into the international banking system without changing their dangerous behavior, including ceasing funding of Hezbollah and other terrorist entities, as well as threatening Israel and our other regional allies. Iran can't have it both ways - wanting to be treated like a normal member of the international community while continuing to act as a pariah, sponsoring terror and fueling instability in its region. Iran must be held fully accountable for its actions and be judged not on future hopes but on past experience."

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