Secretary of State John Kerry has traveled across the globe trying to convince Western companies and banks to do business with their Iranian counterparts, no matter that the Islamic Republic of Iran regularly utilizes its banks to launder money and support terrorism. Kerry, however, has argued that Iranian banks can be trusted. At the September 8 House Financial Services Committee hearing on U.S. ransom payments to Iran, State Department deputy Iran chief Christopher R. Backemeyer repeatedly said that the Iranian government has used its cash windfall to repair its economy rather than invest in terror. He could cite no evidence to back such claims, however, nor has anyone in the administration been able to shed light on how the Obama administration made its assessment that Tehran has used its money constructively. That certainly does not seem to be an assessment shared by the U.S. military, the U.S. intelligence community, or any of Iran’s neighbors.
It seems as if Kerry continues to confuse aspiration with reality. In recent weeks, for example, Iranian officials have debated greater financial transparency and, specifically, whether or not Tehran should live up to the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that seeks “to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.”
On September 9, however, the Tehran Friday Prayer leader—a cleric who speaks on behalf of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a sort of weekly State of the Union address—railed against adhering to FATF standards. Hossein Shariatmadari, who was appointed by the Supreme Leader to edit Kayhan and so reflects the attitude and opinion of Khamenei, published an editorial declaring, “If you implement the FATF, you are emptying yourself of sovereignty. When you are emptied of sovereignty, you are become an easy bite to swallow.” If that were not enough, another soon followed.
Under such circumstances, declarations by the Rouhani administration defending the notion of FATF compliance are little more than window dressing to string credulous officials like Kerry along, even as Iran effectively rejects the transparency that would make Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps money laundering and export of terrorism more difficult.
It is understandable that Kerry seeks to frame the agreement he negotiated and to which he has staked his legacy as a success. To suggest, however, that a regime that so blatantly rejects international norms is safe to do business with places American lives in jeopardy and guarantees more terrorism.
