Daniel Glaser, a senior US Treasury official who deals with terrorist financing, took part in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “meeting in Paris about a month ago,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told AFP.
Even though the two countries have no diplomatic ties and the Bush administration does not encourage contacts with Iranian officials, “it was something agreed within the US government that Glaser could attend,” he said.
“This was a multilateral meeting and organization. To my knowledge they did not have any one-on-one meetings,” McCormack said.
A State Department official who asked not to be named said FATF arranged for the meeting on January 29 with representatives from 14 countries, including the United States and Iran.
The FATF, an international body created in 1989 to promote steps to prevent criminal use of the financial system, said October 12 it was concerned Tehran lacks a system to thwart money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
“FATF calls upon Iran to address on an urgent basis its deficiencies,” the group said in a statement from Paris.
A diplomatic source in Washington said the FATF was due to meet again at the end of February to discuss Iran.
