The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 24 sanctioned three Paraguayan people and five companies for corruption. The sanctions target Kassem Mohamad Hijazi for controlling a money laundering organization and Khalil Ahmad Hijazi and Liz Paola Doldan Gonzalez for working with Kassem Mohamad Hijazi. OFAC also designated the companies Espana Informatica S.A., Mobile Zone International Import-Export S.R.L., Apolo Informatica S.A., Emprendimientos Inmobiliarios Misiones S.A., and Mundo Informatico Paraguay S.A.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi asked Japan to release $3 billion worth of Iranian funds that are frozen in Japan because of U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported Aug. 22. Raisi recently asked Japan’s foreign minister to release the funds, which were generated from gas export sales but are frozen due to expansive U.S. sanctions on Iran’s banking and energy sectors, the report said. “The improvement of ties with Japan is of great importance for Iran. ... Any delay in unblocking Iranian assets in Japanese banks is not justified,” Raisi told Japan’s foreign minister, according to the report.
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Instead of imposing more sanctions against the Taliban, the U.S. will likely try to repurpose existing regimes to better target the group, sanctions and security experts said. The task, which the experts expect to be “very” challenging, will aim to update a U.S. sanctions program that was originally intended to target terrorists but will need to now target the Taliban-controlled Afghan government. The efforts should be coordinated with allies, the experts added, but could be slowed by the delayed nominations of two senior Treasury Department sanctions officials, who have not yet cleared the Senate.
Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, introduced a bill that would require the executive branch to prohibit controlled exports to any country that has acted with "gross negligence with respect to a chemical or biological program," and that gross negligence could come from the government itself, a state-owned enterprise, or a company with "significant material support" from that country's govenrment.
A former top U.S. national security official argued for a more cautious approach to U.S. sanctions policy, saying the administration should seriously assess whether sanctions will work before making them a default foreign policy tool. Although “sanctions can work” when they impose consequential political or economic costs, many U.S. sanctions today don’t have as strong of a purpose, Gregory Treverton, chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2014 to 2017, said in an Aug. 15 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. When the U.S. “targets individual Russians or Chinese or Iranians, it is almost always a symbolic gesture, like indicting foreigners who will never be extradited,” Treverton said. “Symbols matter but concrete results are better.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 23 announced sanctions against a high-level Eritrean military official for his role in human rights abuses committed during the ongoing conflict in Tigray. Gen. Filipos Woldeyohannes, chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces, was added to the Specially Designated Nationals list on the same date. Filipos was designated under the Magnitsky Act “for being a leader or official of an entity that is engaged in serious human rights abuse,” the OFAC release said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control recently sanctioned three Cuban government officials for their roles in connection with the suppression of protests in the country, it said. The agency added Roberto Legra Sotolongo and Andres Laureano Gonzalez Brito of the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces, as well as Abelardo Jimenez Gonzalez of the Cuban Ministry of Interior, to the Specially Designated Nationals List on Aug. 19. The designations mark the fourth round of sanctions since pro-democracy protests started in Cuba on July 11.
The Biden administration sanctioned two Russian individuals and a Russian vessel involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, the State Department said on Aug. 20. The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the parties under the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEESA), which authorizes sanctions against Russia’s energy sector and its use of energy export pipelines. "The administration continues to oppose Nord Stream 2 as a bad deal for Ukraine, and a bad deal for Europe, and a harmful Russian geopolitical project," State spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing. "We remain committed to implementing PEESA even as we take steps to reduce the risks an operational NS2 pipeline would pose to European energy security and the security of Ukraine and frontline NATO and EU countries."
The State Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control recently announced a series of sanctions against Russia, including import restrictions on firearms and the designation of entities and individuals connected the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny. Coming on the one-year anniversary of Navalny’s poisoning with Novichok nerve agent, the new sanctions are being carried out “in concert” with the United Kingdom, State said.