RIYADH, Feb 14 (NNN-BERNAMA-ANADOLU) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday voiced its \u201cregret\u201d over its inclusion on the European Union\u2019s revised list of countries considered to be “high risk” in terms of terrorism financing and money laundering, Anadolu\u00a0Agency reported, quoting a statement carried by Saudi Press Agency (SPA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSaudi Arabia notes with regret the European Commission\u2019s revised list\u2026 which includes Saudi Arabia, despite the latter\u2019s adoption of measures to reinforce its legal framework, leading to enhanced cooperation with its counterparts,\u201d read the government statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Kingdom reaffirms its commitment to the common fight against money laundering and terrorism financing — a commitment it shares with its international partners and allies,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement goes on to point out that Saudi Arabia remains an active member of a US-led military coalition against the Daesh terrorist group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saudi Finance Minister Mohamed al-Jadaan, for his part, was quoted as saying that Riyadh\u2019s commitment to combatting the twin trends remains a \u201cstrategic priority for the Kingdom\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will continue to develop and enhance our regulatory framework to achieve this goal,\u201d SPA quoted al-Jadaan as saying, going on to stress that the revised list still required the approval of the European Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, the European Commission added Saudi Arabia\u2019s name to its list, which, according to a commission statement, “is aimed at protecting the European Union (EU) financial system by preventing risks posed by money laundering and terrorist financing”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a result of the listing,\u201d the statement adds, \u201cbanks and other entities covered by EU anti-money laundering rules will be required to apply increased checks (due diligence) on financial operations involving customers and financial institutions from these high-risk third countries to better identify any suspicious money flows.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with Saudi Arabia, the revised list also reportedly includes Afghanistan, American Samoa, the Bahamas, Botswana, North Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guam, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— NNN-BERNAMA-ANADOLU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RIYADH, Feb 14 (NNN-BERNAMA-ANADOLU) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday voiced its \u201cregret\u201d over its inclusion on the European Union\u2019s revised list of countries considered to be “high risk” in terms of terrorism financing and money laundering, Anadolu\u00a0Agency reported, quoting a statement carried by Saudi Press Agency (SPA). \u201cSaudi Arabia notes with regret the European Commission\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}