FNA - Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezayee announced that the EC's specialized commissions have rejected the country's endorsement of the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo bill), adding that the final decision will be made in the Council's next meeting.

Speaking to reporters after an Expediency Council meeting on Palermo convention here in Tehran on Saturday, Rezayee said that the EC's specialized commissions have concluded that harms and losses of Iran's endorsement of the convention would overpass its merits.

"It is a reality but the EC will have the final decision in this regard," he added.

The Political-Defense-Security and Legal-Judicial Commissions of the EC declared on Thursday that endorsement of the Palermo bill would run against the country's interests.

Asked if Iran is entitled to set preconditions to join Palermo and the blur conditions surrounding this issue, Rezayee said, "Of course, there are much more ambiguities too and it was decided that the pros and cons study them in the next meeting."

This is the second week in a row that the EC defers the decision on the bill for further studies.

Palermo bill is one of the four government bills seeking to bring Iran's anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing standards into line with those defined by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The parliament has approved all the measures but except for the bill that updates Iran's domestic CFT law. All the rest have been rejected by the Guardian Council – a watchdog that ensures laws are in line with the Constitution and Sharia.