An “important” meeting to remove Iraq from the European list of high-risk countries
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the participation of the delegation of the Republic of Iraq to the European Union in the technical meeting of the expert group concerned with removing the name of Iraq from the European list of high-risk countries in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement, received by Alsumaria News, that “Ambassador Abdul Karim Tohme Kaab Head of the Europe Department, next to him, Head of Mission The Republic of Iraq I have European Union Ambassador Sadiq Al-Rikabi Deputy Head of Mission, Minister Plenipotentiary Fadel Rahim, chaired a technical meeting held in the Belgian capital BrusselsThe Iraqi team concerned with removing the name of Iraq from the European list of high-risk countries in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing and the European team concerned with this file in European Commission AndManagement external work.
The technical team presented, according to the statement, “a review of the achievements of the Iraqi system for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, the latest developments in anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws, the types of regulatory authorities and their work as the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Council, the Committee for Freezing Terrorist Funds, institutions concerned with combating organized crimes, and the judiciary.” And the most important achievements of Iraq under the first national strategy to combat money laundering and terrorist financing for the period (2017-2020).
Then, “the observations and inquiries of the European side were discussed regarding the information provided by the Iraqi side regarding criminalization laws, the number of convictions, the type of penalties for perpetrators of money laundering and terrorist financing, banks’ procedures for customer due diligence and international cooperation in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, the ambassador affirmed Abdul Karim Tohme Kaab “Iraq looks forward to removing its name from the European list of countries with risk in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing, especially since Iraq has met all FATF standards and provided the European side with all the documents it requested that prove that it meets all European standards.”