A member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council (EDC) has said that after its latest meeting on Saturday, January 26, he was threatened with death.
Majid Ansari told ISNA news agency he will ask Iran’s security and judicial organs to investigate the death threat against him, but he did not provide any details as to exactly how the threat was made.
He added, “This is the peak of despotism when some think whoever opposes their views is a traitor”.
The EDC, which is a constitutional arbiter between parliament and the Guardian Council met on Saturday to decide about the fate of legislation related to anti money laundering and terror financing demanded by an international watchdog and Western countries.
The international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has asked Iran to amend a series of laws to make its legal framework compatible with international standards. President Hassan Rouhani’s government proposed a series of four bills, but Iran’s conservatives have fiercely resisted their approval. Although parliament has approved the bills, the conservative Guardian Council has refused to endorse two of them.
It was expected the EDC to make a ruling two days ago, but it failed to do so, although FATF has given Iran a deadline until February to change its laws.
Ansari has served as one of president Rouhani's deputies and it can be assumed that he defended the approval of the bills during the EDC meeting and later received death threats.
Ansari also argued that the EDC exists to break deadlocks and “if regarding important matter no solution can be found…the constitution clearly prescribes a referendum”.