Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., urged the Biden administration late Nov. 25 to resist a push from House Democrats to remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list.
The Council of the European Union on Nov. 25 extended its sanctions regime pertaining to Turkey's unauthorized drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2019 for another year. The restrictions now run until Nov. 30, 2025.
The Council of the European Union on Nov. 25 added three Syrian ministers to its Syria sanctions regime for human rights violations. They are Louai Emad El-Din al-Munajjid, the recently appointed minister of internal trade and consumer protection; Firas Hassan Qaddour, the re-appointed minister of petroleum and mineral resources; and Ahmed Mohammad Bustaji, minister of state. The EU's Syrian sanctions list now covers 318 people and 86 entities.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned five people with links to the Gulf Cartel, which OFAC said is one of Mexico’s “most dangerous criminal organizations.” The designations target Ismael Guerra Salinas and his brother Omar Guerra Salinas, the Gulf Cartel members in charge of the Playa Bagdad region. Other designations target Francisco Javier Sierra Angulo, who leads the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and Raul Decuir Garcia and Ildelfonso Carrillo Sapien, who oversee boats that help the cartel move drugs and migrants into U.S. waters.
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The U.S. government likely needs to change the way it's trying to convince Japan, the Netherlands and other allies to impose export controls on a broader set of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including by potentially offering them economic incentives and loosening some existing export restrictions, researchers said in a new report this month. The authors also said the Bureau of Industry and Security should survey American chip toolmakers to better understand global chip markets, which can help it maximize the effectiveness of its current export restrictions.
The leaders of the House Select Committee on China said Nov. 25 that they have asked for a briefing on how the Treasury Department is responding to Hong Kong’s growing role in sanctions evasion.
The U.K. added two financial services companies to its Russia sanctions regime on Nov. 25. Alfastrakhovanie and VSK were listed for operating in the Russian financial services sector, which is a "sector of strategic significance to the Government of Russia," OFSI said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is drafting a final rule that would make certain changes to U.S. export controls based on recent decisions made at the multilateral Australia Group. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Nov. 22.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is renewing a December change to the U.S. Munitions List that allowed U.S. manufacturers to apply for export licenses to participate in development of the KF-21 aircraft “without removing those defense articles from the USML simply because they are used in the KF-21” (see 2312010010). The revision, which was scheduled to expire Dec. 1, will now last through Dec. 1, 2026, or “when terminated by the Department, whichever occurs first,” DDTC said in a final rule released Nov. 25 and effective Nov. 26.