FATF STATEMENT ON IRAN DEMARCHE DELIVERED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANAA 002045 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PLEASE PASS TO TFFC FOR LADAN ARCHIN NEA/ARP FOR NATASHA FRANCESCHI DEPT PLEASE PASS TO ISN NESS FOR ALEX BURKART DEPT PLEASE PASS TO ISN CPI FOR MICHELLE NEW E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2017 TAGS: PARM PREL MNUC ECON EFIN KTFN PTER YM SUBJECT: FATF STATEMENT ON IRAN DEMARCHE DELIVERED REF: SECSTATE 149648 Classified By: A/DCM Mike E. Sarhan, for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Emboffs delivered reftel demarche on October 31 to the ROYG National Anti-Money Launderng Committee (NAMLC) Chairman Ahmed Ghaleb. Also attending the meeting were Mohammed Al-Wareeth of the Yemen Bankers Association, Said Al-Khamery of the Ministry of Interior, Omer Ibrahim of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Amin Hassan of the Central Bank's Anti-Money Laundering Information Unit. Ghaleb promised that he would disseminate reftel points. He admitted that the ROYG has had problems in the past with Iran, who had allegedly financed the April 2007 Houthi revolt in Sa'ada (northern Yemen). According to Ghaleb, information about Iranian financial tranactions in Yemen is "automatically" shared between Yemeni banks and ROYG national security institutions. ¶2. (C) Emboffs also delivered reftel demarche on October 31 to ROYG Ministry of Foreign Affairs First Secretary Abdullah Mossalam Al-Socotry, who opined that reftel points were "too general" and requested that there be a mutual exchange of specific information on suspicious Iranian financial transactions in Yemen between the United States Government and the ROYG. SECHE