PanARMENIAN.Net
U.S. State Department displeased with Armenia-Iran
cooperation development
03.05.2008 15:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Office of the Coordinator for
Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State has
issued Country Reports on Terrorism 2007.
The Armenia Report says:
`Armenia’s counterterrorism contribution included its
continued commitment to overflight and landing rights
of U.S. military aircraft, additional security support
to U.S. facilities in Armenia during times of
terrorist alert, and the renewed deployment of
peacekeeping forces in Iraq. In addition, Armenia
joined the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear
Terrorism, and expressed interest in joining the
Convention for Suppression of Acts of Nuclear
Terrorism.
In September, a delegation of inspectors from the UN
Counterterrorism Committee Executive Directorate
visited Armenia to ascertain its progress in complying
with UNSCR 1372, and found that 12 of the 13 legal
counterterrorism instruments had already been
implemented or were soon to be implemented. And in
July, the Armenian government succeeded in adapting
the EU export control list of `dual-use’ commodities
to its own national control list.
The Financial Monitoring Center (FMC), a
U.S.-supported financial intelligence unit within the
Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), continued to make
investigative strides against money-laundering. During
the first nine months of the year, the FMC received
twenty-four suspicious transaction reports (STRs),
compared to twenty-three STRs during the same period
in 2006, and six STRs in 2005. Under its current
mandate, the CBA can freeze temporarily financial
assets while referring the STRs to the competent
authorities for further investigation. However, it
must rely on private financial institutions to
self-monitor and lacked an integrated IT system to
store information on financial entities or individuals
of concern. At the end of the year, no cases involving
terrorist financing were uncovered or prosecuted. The
FMC received Egmont Group membership this year.
Armenia improved border security by maintaining an
automated Border Management Information System (BMIS)
that documented and stored the names of travelers at
nearly all official points of entry, and contained
criminal and terrorist watchlists as updated by the
Republic of Armenia Police (RAP) and National Security
Service (NSS). While Armenia has no bilateral
agreement with the United States governing the sharing
of information on travelers, the NSS and RAP shared
information with the U.S. Embassy when they discovered
fraudulent U.S. visas or other documents of interest
to the United States.
Armenia’s warming relations with neighboring Iran
continued, with Armenia hosting official visits by
Iranian President Ahmadinejad (October) and Iranian
Defense Minister Najjar (November). In addition to
fostering closer diplomatic ties, these visits served
to solidify previous bilateral commitments to develop
joint energy and transportation projects. This closer
cooperation has made Armenia more reluctant to
criticize publicly objectionable Iranian conduct or
join other UN member states in advocating for
sanctions on the Iranian regime.
Although Armenia continued to strengthen its
counterterrorism capabilities and enhanced its
counterterrorism cooperation with the United States
and other international security organizations, its
geographic location, porous borders, and loose visa
regime still provided ample opportunities for
traffickers of illicit materials, persons, and
finances. Furthermore, endemic governmental
corruption, a significant organized crime presence,
and a large shadow economy made the country
potentially vulnerable to money laundering and
terrorist financing schemes.’