The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated eight senior executives of Paravar Pars -- an Iranian company that manufactures Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force -- and two Iranian naval vessels. The sanctions target Paravar Pars' board members, including CEO Hossein Shamsabadi, and the vessels Iris Makran and Iris Dena, an oil tanker serving as a UAV maintenance ship and an escorting frigate, respectively.

The U.N. Security Council recently added one entry to its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida sanctions. The designation targets the Islamic State Group’s East Asia division, formed in June 2016.

Australia this week announced new human rights sanctions against people and entities in Myanmar and Iran. The Myanmar sanctions target 16 members of the Myanmar military regime and two military-controlled entities in response to their part in the overthrow of the country’s government in 2021 (see 2102110020). The Iran sanctions target four Iranian people and four entities involved in the production and supply of drones to Russia for Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Australia’s announcements were made alongside similar sanctions imposed by the U.S. this week (see 2301310020 and 2301310007).

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 10 individuals and 12 entities the agency said are related to a global sanctions evasion network that supports Russia’s military-industrial complex. The designations are part of a "strategy to methodically and intensively target sanctions evasion efforts around the globe, close down key backfilling channels, expose facilitators and enablers, and limit Russia’s access to revenue," OFAC said in a Feb. 1 news release.

Iranian banks may now rely on Russian bank messaging services to make some international transactions while bypassing the international bank messaging system, according to a Jan. 31 report in The New York Times. Citing an Iranian central bank official interviewed by Iran’s Fars news service, the report said the move will allow both countries to get around the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), from which Iran has been suspended since 2018 and Russia since 2022. The report said Russian central bank officials will arrive in Iran soon to finalize details of the agreement.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control has published a group of previously issued general licenses under its Venezuela sanctions. One notice covers general licenses 6, 10 and 11; another notice covers general license 5F; and a third covers general licenses 14 and 15. The full text of each license appears in the respective notice.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated six individuals and three entities connected to Burma’s military regime in conjunction with actions taken by both the U.K. and Canada, according to a Jan. 31 news release. The designations cover individuals and entities that financially support Burma's military regime, which OFAC says has "continued to use violence and oppression to deny the people of Burma the ability to choose their own leaders."

Sanctions and export controls on Russia are having an effect and policymakers should exercise patience and focus on enforcement going forward, experts said during a Jan. 31 discussion at the Atlantic Council. The event was a discussion of the impact of sanctions and export controls on the Russian economy.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated the leader of a Mexico-based network and two associates for procuring precursor chemicals to manufacture and traffic fentanyl and other synthetic drugs to the U.S., according to a Jan. 30 news release.

The Treasury Department is seeking public comments on an information collection on certain reporting requirements under the financial sanctions regulations for Hezbollah. U.S. financial institutions that maintained a correspondent account or payable-through account for certain foreign financial institutions listed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control must file a report with OFAC that includes “full details on the closing of each such account, and on all transactions processed or executed through the account.” This report must be filed with OFAC within 30 days of the account's closure. Public comments are due March 1.