WASHINGTON — The Donald Trump administration expressed support today for an intergovernmental watchdog’s decision that rewards the Iranian financial system for its relative progress combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) voted last week to continue suspending countermeasures on Iran indefinitely, while keeping the country on the banking advisory body’s black list. State and Treasury officials told Al-Monitor they welcomed the decision to warn about the risks of doing business with Iran, even as Tehran also applauded a move that curtails the threat of new sanctions.

Experts said the June 23 decision, made at the FATF’s plenary meeting in Valencia, Spain, to suspend countermeasures was appropriate — “the triumph of the technical over the political” — given that Iran had made improvements but still had a long way to go to bring its banking sector in line with international standards. The agency last year suspended countermeasures for 12 months as Iran, in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal, sought to engage the group and accept technical help on how to clean up its banking sector.

The FATF’s “decision in Valencia seems technical and sober to me,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury Department official who is now with the Center for a New American Security. “It would have been political if they reinstated sanctions … or took a step to downgrade their cautionary notation to countries about dealings with Iran.”