The State Department announced sanctions on Anselem Nhamo Sanyatwe, the former commander of the Zimbabwe National Army’s Presidential Guard Brigade and current ambassador of Zimbabwe to Tanzania, the agency said in an Aug. 1 press release. Sanyatwe was sanctioned for a “gross violation of human rights,” the agency said, including a “violent crackdown” against unarmed election protesters in Zimbabwe in 2018 that led to six deaths. The State Department also designated Chido Machona, Sanyatwe’s spouse.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 1 removed more than 40 entries from its Kingpin Act designations, which impose sanctions on international narcotics traffickers. The removals include people based in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala and Mexico.
The broad range of U.S. sanctions are confusing U.S. allies, seem to have no clear goal and could damage future administrations' ability to levy sanctions, several experts on U.S. sanctions said. The U.S. actions are also allowing countries to create sanctions immunities and leading to divisions in Europe, they said, criticizing the Trump administration’s lack of planning for potential consequences.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bill on July 31 that would sanction anyone involved with Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The bill authorizes the Trump administration to impose a series of sanctions on those involved, including restricted use of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, restricted export licenses, asset freezes and more. The administration cannot use the measures to ban a sanctioned person from importing goods into the U.S., the bill said. If Congress passes the bill, the State Department would be required to submit an annual report to Congress on all entities involved in the pipeline project.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister and spokesman, Treasury announced July 31. The move comes about a month after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters in June that President Donald Trump was planning to sanction Javad Zarif (see 1906240046). “Javad Zarif implements the reckless agenda of Iran’s Supreme Leader, and is the regime’s primary spokesperson around the world,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “At the same time the Iranian regime denies Iranian citizens’ access to social media, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spreads the regime’s propaganda and disinformation around the world through these mediums.”
A top Treasury official acknowledged criticism that the agency is abusing its sanctions powers but stood by the approach, saying the sanctions are necessary and that the Treasury is mitigating impacts on U.S. companies by issuing more compliance guidance.
Russia is considering new bills that would counter anti-Russian sanctions through criminal charges and the creation of an “‘unreliable’ payment processors list,” according to a July 30 Lexology report and notices from the Russian State Duma.
The Senate on July 29 failed to override President Donald Trump’s vetoes of three separate resolutions blocking the U.S.’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia and with the United Arab Emirates. The effort failed in each of the votes -- 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41 -- which needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The sales, announced in May by the State Department, used the Arms Export Control Act’s emergency provision to bypass congressional approval and move forward with 22 arms transfers worth about $8 billion to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Sen Pat Roberts, R-Kan., that the U.S and Europe are at an impasse on trade talks, because the EU is not willing to talk about its barriers to U.S. agriculture exports.
The House passed a bill July 25 that urges the president to “prioritize” a new framework to improve export licensing. The provision, part of the Department of State Authorization Act of 2019, said the administration should “streamline licensing” by revising “Special Comprehensive Export Authorizations” for exports to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, any of the organization's member countries, Sweden and any other country described in the Arms Export Control Act. The bill also makes several technical changes to the AECA, including an amendment that changes the purposes for which U.S. military sales are authorized from an “internal security justification” to a “legitimate internal security (including for anti-terrorism purposes).”