The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decision to extend its deadline to Iran to fix its financial system has received warmly by most of the Islamic Republic officials.

Bahram Qasemi, Foreign Ministry Spokesman, welcomed the extension of the deadline as an achievement of the Islamic Republic of Iran's diplomacy, but he criticized the watchdog’s statement for the use of some “negative phrases”.

He said that FATF must avoid politically motivated pressure and pay attention only to the technical reports. He accused the US of having actively opposed this extension because of the delusional and radical policies of the White House.

FATF decided at its meeting last week to continue the suspension of counter-measures against Iran for another four months until February 2019.

“By February 2019, the FATF expects Iran to have brought into force the necessary legislation in line with FATF standards, or the FATF will take further steps to protect against the risks emanating from deficiencies in Iran’s Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing regime,” FATF said in its statement.

The current chairman of FATF, who is a US Treasury official, announced that Iran has not delivered 9 out of 10 action plan items.

However, according to Qasemi, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, “the majority” of FATF requests have been implemented “completely” and the rest “will be implemented following the legislative process in the next three months”.

Qasemi is referring to four bills that president Rouhani has sent to the parliament. Only the bill for measures against financing terrorism has been approved by the Guardian Council.

Laya Joneydi, the vice president for legal affairs, called the extension of FATF deadline “another victory in our smart legal battle” and added that “this victory is a big help to the EU financial counter-measures against US sanctions”.

Iran’s parliament passed the government bill to join the Anti-Terrorist Financing Convention, but it is yet to be approved by the Guardian Council. All parliament’s legislation must be assessed and approved by this council close to the supreme leader.

Conservatives, who control the Guardian Council, have said earlier that they are against Iran joining the convention.