The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on three Iran-backed Hizballah and Lebanese government officials who helped “bolster Iran’s malign activities,” Treasury said in a July 9 press release. The announcement came two days after the State Department threatened more Iran sanctions in response to the country breaching the enriched uranium limit set in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (see 1907080019).
Iran surpassed the enriched uranium limit that was agreed to as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the country announced July 7, sparking concern from the European Union and threats of additional sanctions by the U.S.
If the Iran nuclear deal collapses and Europe imposes a set of automatic snapback sanctions, the U.S. would likely follow with its own set of additional Iran sanctions, including greater enforcement on non-U.S. entities and sanctions on Iran’s trading partners, said Inessa Owens, a trade lawyer with Baker McKenzie.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 24-28 in case they were missed.
President Donald Trump and the Department of the Treasury announced new Iran sanctions that target the country’s supreme leader and eight senior military officials, the White House said June 24.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is updating its Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations to change how parties file reports on blocked property, unblocked property and rejected transactions related to economic sanctions, OFAC said in a June 20 notice. The amended regulations, to be published in the June 21 Federal Register, also detail revisions to OFAC’s electronic license application procedures, the availability of its records under the Freedom of Information Act and other “certain technical and conforming changes,” OFAC said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a “finding of violation” against U.S.-based State Street Bank and Trust Co. (SSBT) after it violated U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iran, OFAC said in a May 28 notice. The bank was not fined, OFAC said, partly because the bank’s managers were likely unaware of the violations and because the bank cooperated with OFAC and improved its compliance program.
The European Union said it would “reject any ultimatums” imposed by Iran after the country announced May 8 it is suspending some of its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, effective immediately (see 1905080058). In a May 9 statement, the EU said it has “great concern” over Iran’s demands and “strongly” urged it to “refrain from any escalatory steps,” but also said it disapproves of U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iran following U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA.
The Trump administration on May 8 announced an executive order placing sanctions on Iran’s iron, steel, aluminum and copper sectors in what it said are the country’s “largest non-petroleum-related sources of export revenue."
U.S. economic sanctions are on a path toward losing power and impact, potentially undercutting a variety of tools used in U.S. foreign policy, according to a study published April 29 by the Center for a New American Security. The study, “Economic Dominance, Financial Technology, and the Future of U.S. Economic Coercion,” examines the current state of U.S. economic sanctions and makes several predictions, portraying a muddy outlook for the future of U.S. sanctioning tools. “If policymakers want to be able to continue deploying coercive economic tools effectively … they must ... get ahead of trends that could, if left unchecked, weaken some of the most important tools of U.S. foreign policy,” the study said.