June 10, The Iran Project - Today, Iranian lawmakers on approved the Palermo bill on joining the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC).

The parliamentarians earlier amended the bill after the Guardian Council found incompatibility between the text of the bill and its translation.

Iran's Majlis (Parliament) did approve the Palermo bill with 136 votes in favor and 89 against. Eleven lawmakers abstained.

Meanwhile, the Iranian MPs also decided to suspend discussing Iran’s accession to the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism (CFT) for two months in coordination with the government on Sunday.

The lawmakers suspended it with 138 yes votes until two months later when the fate of Iran's current negotiations with three European countries aimed at saving the JCPOA is known.

In a meantime, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araghchi in Parliament'  Sunday morning open session urged accession to the Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism, saying cutting off lines of financial support for terrorists is impossible without international cooperation.

Araghchi noted that Iran is threatened by two types of terrorism, one is the international terrorism to which Iran is a victim, and the other is the instrumental use of the concept of terrorism by the West to undermine the efforts of resistance groups, particularly those in opposition to the Israeli regime.

Araghchi maintained that the international community recognizes four groups, including ISIL, al-Qaeda, Taliban and al-Nusra, as terrorist groups, stressing that without international cooperation within the framework of conventions, it is impossible to cut off sources of terrorism financing.

Before starting of the Parliament’s session on Iran’s accession to CFT and UNTOC this morning, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani stated that the Islamic Republic officials are not going to wait for the European Union's vague promises.

EU does not have much time to lead the talks to a conclusion, Larijani said, adding that if Europe assumes that it can preserve the nuclear deal, it has to announce its clear decision sooner.