The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a blocking memorandum and formally updated 33 entries on its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. The agency published “identifying information” on the entries as a result of President Donald Trump’s Sept. 10 executive order that expanded Treasury’s terrorism-related sanctions authorities (see 1909100048). Most names are for persons or entities in the Middle East, specifically Palestine.
Iraq wants to increase trade with the U.S. and make market access for U.S. companies more attractive, Iraq's Ambassador to the U.S. Fareed Yasseen said. But Yasseen also said Iraq is opposed to U.S. sanctions on Iran and will not take a side as tensions escalate. Yasseen said Iraq is working on two draft laws to boost trade and standardize entrances at customs border gates to convince U.S. companies to do business in the country. “Simply put, we would like U.S. businesses and U.S. society to have a role in the reconstruction of Iraq,” Yasseen said, speaking during a Sept. 10 Atlantic Council event.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned three North Korean state-run hacking groups responsible for supporting the country’s illegal weapons and missile programs, Treasury said in a Sept. 13 press release. The cyber groups -- Lazarus Group, Bluenoroff and Andariel -- work on behalf of North Korea to conduct “cyber espionage, data theft, monetary heists and destructive malware operations,” Treasury said.
The Treasury Department said the founder of a laser technology company headquartered in Massachusetts should not have been included in a 2018 report to Congress that was aimed at informing sanctions decisions, according to a Sept. 11 letter from Treasury. Valentin Gapontsev, founder of IPG Photonics, was listed as a Russian oligarch in a report that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was required to submit to Congress as part of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. The report contained a list of Russian oligarchs and officials that had the potential of facing U.S. sanctions. Gapontsev was born in Moscow, and founded IPG in 1990 in Russia; with a slight name change, IPG Photonics established headquarters in Oxford, Massachusetts, in 1998, according to information found online.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Kale Kayihura, the former inspector general of police of the Ugandan Police Force, for leading an entity involved in human rights abuses and corruption, Treasury said in a Sept. 13 press release. Kayihura and members of Uganda’s Flying Squad Unit abused detainees at the Nalufenya Special Investigations Center and after they'd been subjected to the abuse, offered them money if they confessed to crimes, Treasury said. Kayihura also used bribery to improve his political position within the Ugandan government and stole funds intended for government use, the press release said. Kayihura was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The Congressional Research Service released a report Sept. 11 on U.S. sanctions on Iran, detailing how sanctions are used within the Trump administration, the impact of the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and more. The 110-page report includes information on how sanctions are triggered; what type of trade between the two countries is allowed; detailed descriptions of U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil, energy and military sectors; an overview of European sanctions on Iran; and possible future sanctions.
The State Department issued a notice correcting the effective date of sanctions announced in July against a Chinese state-owned oil company and its director. The sanctions, imposed against Zhuhai Zhenrong and director Youmin Li, took effect July 22, changing the original effective date of Sept. 16, the State Department said. The company was sanctioned for buying oil from Iran (see 1908150040).
Iran violated international sanctions by reneging on promises to Britain that it would not use a previously seized oil tanker to deliver oil to Syria, the United Kingdom said in a Sept. 10 press release. The U.K. said it is “now clear that Iran has breached these assurances” and shipped the oil to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime.
The State Department sanctioned two Russian officials for human rights violations, the agency said in a Sept. 10 press release. The officials, Vladimir Petrovich Yermolayev, the head of the Investigative Committee in Surgut, Russia, and Stepan Vladimirovich Tkach, a senior investigator for the committee, were involved in the torture of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the city, the press release said.
President Donald Trump discussed removing sanctions on Iran to help schedule a meeting with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani later this month, Bloomberg reported Sept. 11. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was in favor of the move as a way to restart negotiations with Iran, the report said, but then-National Security Adviser John Bolton argued against it. Bolton resigned one day later.