The U.N. Security Council revised five entries under its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida sanctions list. The changes include updated identifying information, location information and other status updated for Ibrahim Ali Abu Bakr Tantoush; Al-Azhar Ben Khalifa Ben Ahmed Rouine; Sulaiman Jassem Sulaiman Ali Abo Ghaith; Shafi Sultan Mohammed al-Ajmi; and Gulmurod Khalimov
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is officially removing its Syrian Sanctions Regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations after President Donald Trump earlier this year ended the national emergency that authorized those sanctions (see 2506300055 and 2507010012). The change is effective Aug. 26.
Delisting decisions at the Office of Foreign Assets Control are increasingly being driven by outside voices, leading to removals that lack transparency and interagency discussion, a former OFAC official said.
The EU last week issued new guidance on a requirement created in 2024 that calls on EU parent companies to make “best efforts” to ensure that their third-country subsidiaries aren’t enabling sanctions evasion (see 2411220014 and 2406240024). Although this “legal obligation applies only in the context of sanctions on Russia and Belarus,” the European Commission said it’s encouraging all EU parent companies “to seek to ensure that all entities they own or control do not undermine EU sanctions anywhere in the world.”
The State Department rescinded its statutory debarment of Dominick DeQuarto after receiving a reinstatement request, the agency said in a notice released Aug. 22. The agency debarred DeQuarto in 2020 for violating the Arms Export Control Act but determined the debarment should no longer apply after conducting a “thorough review of the circumstances surrounding" his conviction. The State Department determined that DeQuarto has taken “appropriate steps to address the causes of the violations sufficient to warrant rescission of his statutory debarment.”
A U.S. business owner allegedly exported gun parts and accessories to Russia illegally by routing them through Kazakhstan and mislabeling the shipments to evade authorities, DOJ said last week. Maxim Larin, a Florida resident who owns multiple U.S.-based firearms supply companies, illegally worked with a person in Russia to evade export restrictions and ship items controlled under both the Export Administration Regulations and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the agency said.
When the Senate returns from its August recess, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said, he wants the chamber to take up a major Russia sanctions bill to spur Moscow to end its war with Ukraine.
Reps. Gabe Amo, D-R.I., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, announced Aug. 21 that they are introducing a House companion to a Senate bill that seeks to remove obstacles to defense trade within the 4-year-old Australia-U.K.-U.S. security partnership.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Canada is dropping its retaliatory tariffs on American exports -- except for those in steel, aluminum and autos -- as long as those U.S. goods qualify for USMCA.
The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is seeking comments on an information collection involving nontransfer and use certificates information collections. Companies must submit those certificates to DDTC with any manufacturing license agreement or technical assistance agreement that involves "significant military equipment or classified defense articles, including classified technical data," the agency said. The foreign consignee or foreign end-user and applicant -- and in some cases a foreign government official -- must fill out this form to certify that the foreign end-user won't reexport, resell or dispose of the defense articles "outside the foreign country named as the country of ultimate destination" or to "any other person." Comments are due Oct. 24.