Financial Tribune - President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday strongly defended his government's initiative to comply with global anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism standards, saying failure to do so would be a blow to Iran's banking and financial ties with the outside world.

Rouhani, who was addressing the annual general assembly of the Central Bank of Iran, said if banking relations are harmed, the country would face problems in exporting oil and importing goods.

"We cannot do trade with suitcases. If it was about importing some spare part, then that could be possible. But when it comes to importing millions of tons of grains, the banking system has to do that," Rouhani was quoted as saying by the governments' official news outlet.