China sanctioned Johnnie Moore, a former commissioner for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, for his role in publishing the State Department's 2020 report on international religious freedom, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a May 26 news conference, according to a transcript in English. The report was “fraught with ideological bias,” and has “severely interfered in China's internal affairs,” the spokesperson said. Moore and his family are barred from entering mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong. The sanction is “counterproductive,” USCIRF Chair Anurima Bhargava said May 27. “It will only draw more international attention to the atrocities and horrors being perpetrated by the Chinese government against the Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and countless other Chinese citizens.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control released its Myanmar Sanctions Regulations to implement a February executive order that authorized sanctions against the country for the military-led coup earlier this year (see 2102100060). The regulations, effective June 1, were released in an “abbreviated form” to give “immediate guidance to the public,” OFAC said in a notice. The agency plans to supplement the regulations with more “interpretive and definitional guidance, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions.” The regulations include general definitions, information on blocked and exempt transactions, licensing requirements and penalties.
The U.S. and Iran will likely come to an agreement on the Iran nuclear deal as early as this summer, which could lift a range of economic sanctions on Iran, two foreign policy experts said. Although talks between the two sides have progressed over the past several weeks, the experts say it remains unclear how the sanctions will be lifted and whether a more comprehensive, revised deal will follow.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added eight entities to the Entity List for their involvement in nuclear proliferation activities and issued several other revisions, one correction and one removal from the Entity List and Military End User List. The eight entities, located in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, include laboratory equipment providers, engineering companies and electronics makers. They will face a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and BIS will impose a license review policy of presumption of denial. No license exceptions will be available. The changes take effect June 1.
The United Kingdom released an update relating to substantial changes made to two open general export licenses for information security items, the Department for International Trade said in a May 26 guidance. The two OGELS were amended to include China, Hong Kong and Macao as permitted destinations, however the additions have been balanced by a reduction of the list of permitted items. All items specified in Schedule 1 of the new OGEL for information security items must only use “standard encryption algorithms that have been approved or adopted by recognized international standards bodies (examples: 3GPP, ETSI, GSMA, IEEE, IETF, ISO, ITU, TIA),” and “any cryptographic functionality used by the item cannot be easily changed by the user.” Any potential exporter of these goods must register through the UK's SPIRE portal, the export control joint unit's electronic licensing system.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls will hold a June 8 webinar on defense service agreements, the agency announced May 27. Officials from DDTC’s information technology modernization team and licensing division will answer common questions on submitting agreement requests to DDTC and explain the submission process in the Defense Export Control and Compliance System. There will also be a question-and-answer period.
Less than a week after a group of House Democrats introduced a resolution to block U.S. arms sales to Israel (see 2105240062), eight Republican senators said the sales should go through. The two sales, notified to Congress May 5, will help Israel defend itself “against Iran-backed Hamas terrorists,” said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who introduced a May 26 resolution approving the sales along with Marco Rubio of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and others. Republican senators also urged the Biden administration not to provide Iran sanctions relief under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues (see 2105140027).
Foreign ministers from the G7 countries said they are considering imposing more sanctions against Belarus (see 2105250027) for diverting a civilian plane earlier this week to arrest a journalist. In a May 27 statement, the ministers said they will “enhance” efforts, “including through further sanctions as appropriate, to promote accountability for the actions of the Belarusian authorities.”
Export controls over 3D-printed guns were moved from the Commerce Department to the State Department following a court’s decision this week to officially waive a preliminary injunction that had blocked the transfer (see 2105030021).
The Bureau of Industry and Security added eight entities to the Entity List for their involvement in nuclear proliferation activities. The entities, located in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, will face a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and BIS will impose a license review policy of presumption of denial.