The U.K.’s National Crime Agency published an alert last week to make companies aware of sanctions evasion by Russian shadow fleet vessels, including red flags they should be monitoring and steps they can take to alert U.K. authorities.

The State Department approved a potential $510 million military sale to Israel, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week. The sale includes munitions guidance kits, munitions support and related equipment. The principal contractor will be Boeing, although portions of the guidance kits may be transferred from U.S. government stock.

Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, both R-Fla., urged the Trump administration last week to continue using “maximum pressure,” including sanctions, to pressure Venezuela to release "wrongfully imprisoned" Americans.

Three Senate Democrats urged the Trump administration July 3 to restart regular updates of sanctions and export controls against Chinese and other entities helping Russia’s war machine.

The Automed Export System’s Response Message 15A, which alerts filers if the reported Foreign Trade Zone Indicator isn’t formatted correctly, is being upgraded from a “compliance” message to a fatal error beginning July 14, CBP said in a cargo systems message last week. The error message won't allow export filers to move forward if the FTZ Indicator “does not have the required format of 3 numeric characters which is a valid zone followed by 6 alphanumeric characters.”

The U.K. on July 3 added three financial sanctions FAQs covering what constitutes an "economic resource" and when licenses are required from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation if licenses have been issued by a "Crown Dependency or Overseas Territory."

The U.S. and its allies should consider using additional sanctions to force Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons program, although more sanctions also risk pushing Iran to cooperate even more closely with China, Russia and North Korea, a former Pentagon official said last week.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned a network of people, entities and ships for transporting and buying billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil, some of which has benefited Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. OFAC said some of companies are run by Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said, who the agency said smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil.

The U.S. last week sanctioned seven senior officials and one entity linked to the Hezbollah-controlled and sanctioned financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan. The Office of Foreign Assets Control said the officials served in senior management roles for Al-Qard Al-Hassan and have helped it evade U.S. sanctions, allowing Hezbollah to access the "formal financial system."

The U.S. should take several steps to reduce red tape and streamline arms sales and technology transfers to close trading partners, including more frequently reviewing the jurisdiction of export-controlled items and combining reviews of weapons requests from allies, researchers said in a new report.