U.S. and U.K. officials over the past year continued to build on a partnership between their two leading sanctions agencies, including by sharing information about national security threats and ways the agencies can modernize their approaches to licensing and enforcement, they said in a joint statement released Nov. 19.
The U.S. this week sanctioned six people connected to the terror group Hamas, including by helping it smuggle weapons into Gaza or for coordinating with Russia.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned nine people in Mexico involved in drug trafficking and money laundering, including with major drug trafficking group Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. OFAC said some of them played a “prominent role in the early stages” of the U.S. opioid crisis by smuggling drugs into America.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a U.S. citizen more than $1 million for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran by using foreign money services businesses to buy an Iranian hotel.
The U.S. government should create a joint interagency task force led by the national security adviser to develop better ways to prevent China from obtaining sensitive dual-use technology from the U.S. and its allies, a bipartisan congressionally mandated commission said Nov. 19.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who is slated to become Senate majority leader when Republicans take control of the chamber in January, said Nov. 17 that the Senate should pass legislation to sanction International Criminal Court officials if the ICC doesn't stop pursuing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza.
A new U.K. general license released this week authorizes certain payments involving sanctioned Iranian airline Iran Air. The license, effective Nov. 18, allows payments that are required to "exercise Iran's right" to "overfly the United Kingdom" or "make a Stop for Non-Traffic purposes in the United Kingdom" in line with the Convention on International Civil Aviation and its Annexes. The license also allows for payments from Iran Air for "contractual obligations that arose prior to Iran Air's designation in respect of ground services or airport services in the UK," including ticket refunds from canceled flights to or from the U.K., as long as no payments are made to another sanctioned party.
The U.S. this week sanctioned three entities and several people for their ties to violence in the West Bank or for undermining peace in the region, including an organization that aids Israelis previously designated by the U.S.
The EU expanded the scope of its sanctions framework on Russia to cover vessels and ports used to transfer Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles and related components for use in the war in Ukraine, the Council of the EU announced Nov. 18. The move bars the "export, transfer, supply, or sale from the EU to Iran of components used in the development and production of missiles and UAVs," the council said, and a ban on transactions with ports and locks that are owned or controlled by sanctioned parties or used to transfer Iranian UAVs, missiles or component parts to Russia.