The Office of Foreign Assets Control added three people and two companies to its Specially Designated Nationals List for providing financial services and facilitating weapons procurement for Hezbollah, the agency said Dec. 1.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three people for being members of the Workers’ Party of Korea and helping North Korea develop weapons of mass restriction and ballistic missiles. The designations target Jon Il Ho, Yu Jin and Kim Su Gil, OFAC said. Brian Nelson, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the sanctions were in response to North Korean missile launches (see Ref:2211070016]).

President Joe Biden signed a memorandum this week stating that the administration will use sanctions, as well as other penalties, to respond to “conflict-related sexual violence” (CRSV). The White House said it will look to designate perpetrators of sexual violence crimes associated with conflicts and give those designations “equal consideration alongside other serious human rights abuses.”

The U.S. plans to use Magnitsky-style human rights sanctions to penalize “environmental criminals” responsible for the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, Reuters reported Nov. 23. Although U.S. officials have discussed with Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva his plans to tackle climate change, there are still “question marks about how he views the plan,” the report said. The U.S. could use sanctions to limit people from using the international financial system to further deforestation, the report said, and could designate “major deforesters" and “perpetrators of other environmental crimes such as illegal gold mining.” The White House didn’t comment.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated three Iranian security officials for actions connected with the government's "continuing crackdown on protests. The sanctions target two key officials in the city of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province: Hassan Asgari, the governor of Sanandaj, and Alireza Moradi, the commander of Law Enforcement Forces of Iran in Sanandaj. The third designee is Mohammad Taghi Osanloo, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ground Forces who oversees Iran’s West Azerbaijan province.

Canada this week imposed additional sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime in Belarus for aiding Russia’s invasion and war in Ukraine. The new designations apply to 22 Belarusian officials, including people involved in stationing and transporting Russian military personnel and equipment. Canada also sanctioned 16 Belarusian companies involved in military manufacturing, technology, engineering, banking and railway transportation.

The U.S. is considering additional sanctions against Iran for supplying Russia with drones, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a Nov. 22 call with reporters. The Biden administration has already designated Iranian firms and people involved in the sales of unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia (see 2211150060), including for UAV support efforts in Ukraine, but Kirby said the U.S. can still impose further sanctions.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Nov. 21 extended a Russia-related general license that authorizes the payment of certain taxes and import fees to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation despite the sanctions imposed on those entities. General License 13C, which replaces GL 13B (see 2209080047), extends the authorization through 12:01 a.m. EST on March 7, 2023. GL13B was scheduled to expire Dec. 7.

Canada recently announced sanctions against three Haitian political elites for providing “illicit financial and operational support to armed gangs.” Canada said the three people use their positions as current or former public office holders to “protect and enable the illegal activities of armed criminal gangs, including through money laundering and other acts of corruption.” Canada previously sanctioned Jimmy Cherizier, the leader of the Haitian gang G9 (see 2211140008).

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two people and three companies for their roles in exploiting the Guatemalan mining sector, along with three associated entities connected with their corruption schemes, according to a Nov. 18 news release.