MNA – The Expediency Council’s Saturday meeting on joining the UN Convention on Transnational Crime (Palermo bill) ended without conclusion, leaving the fate of the bill unknown till the next Iranian year (starting in March 21), a member of the council said.

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

Another member the Council Gholamreza Mesbahi also said the next session to review the bills has been postponed to the next Iranian year (starting in March 21).

The Palermo bill had been once examined in the Guardian Council and then in the high supervisory board of the Expediency Council, where the bodies found some flaws with it and referred it back to the Parliament. However, the Parliament insisted on its endorsement and returned the bill to the Expediency Council for the final verdict.

Together with the bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT), Palermo is a controversial FATF-related bill that Iran has been requested to endorse in order to join the anti-money laundering watchdog and get off the body’s blacklist.

The Palermo bill needs at least two third of the votes today to be endorsed by the Expediency Council.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) watchdog said on Feb. 02 that it has extended Iran's deadline to June to strengthen its anti-money laundering legislation.