The U.K. general sanctions license permitting humanitarian activity in Syria expired Feb. 14, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced. The license previously allowed humanitarian organizations to undertake activities needed to "facilitate humanitarian assistance in relation to earthquake relief efforts in Syria and Turkey." The agency earlier this month issued a separate license permitting certain humanitarian activity in Syria (see 2502120030).
The Council of the European Union on Feb. 18 renewed its "restrictive measures framework" on Zimbabwe for another year, until Feb. 20, 2026. The measures include an embargo on arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression. However, the council delisted the last remaining entity on the sanctions list, the Zimbabwe Defence Industries.
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Companies in the Czech Republic plan to ask the Bureau of Industry and Security to loosen restrictions on U.S. exports of advanced artificial intelligence chips that were put in place as part of a BIS rule in January that tightened controls for nations around the world.
Companies shouldn’t expect a significant amount of early enforcement action from the U.K.’s new Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation, which isn’t yet a finished product, its leader, Anna Deibel-Jung, said last week.
DOJ charged an Ohio-based subsidiary of a Russian aircraft parts supplier and three of its current and former employees with illegally exporting aircraft parts from the U.S. to Russia and Russian airline companies, DOJ announced.
Three Senate Democrats, including Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have asked the Treasury Department whether it has exempted its Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) from the Trump administration’s hiring freeze to ensure TFI can continue to carry out its national security mission.
The U.S. government’s approach to export controls is flawed because it's based on outdated assumptions about China's technological prowess, a witness told the House Foreign Affairs Committee at a closed-door roundtable Feb. 12.
India and the U.S. will negotiate a bilateral trade agreement that will cover multiple sectors in tranches, with the first aiming for completion in the fall of 2025, President Donald Turmp and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in their joint statement, released after their meeting Feb. 13. The two leaders also announced plans to increase U.S. military sales to India and possibly reduce defense trade restrictions under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
The U.K. added three people and two entities to its Russia sanctions list on Feb. 14. The individuals are Artem Yuryevich Chaika, who was listed for owning or controlling extractive company First Non-Metallic Company; Pavel Mikhailovich Fradkov, deputy minister of the Ministry of Defense; and Vladimir Viktorovich Selin, head of the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control. The entities are Joint Stock Company Kirov Energomash Plant and LLC Rosatom Additive Technologies.