The Office of Foreign Assets Control extended a general license that authorizes U.S. academic institutions to exports certain “online educational services” and software to Iran, the agency said Aug. 24. General License M-1, which replaces General License M (see 2010290043), was extended through 12:01 a.m. EDT Sept. 1, 2022. The original license was scheduled to expire Sept. 1, 2021.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 24 sanctioned three Paraguayan people and five companies for corruption. The sanctions target Kassem Mohamad Hijazi for controlling a money laundering organization and Khalil Ahmad Hijazi and Liz Paola Doldan Gonzalez for working with Kassem Mohamad Hijazi. OFAC also designated the companies Espana Informatica S.A., Mobile Zone International Import-Export S.R.L., Apolo Informatica S.A., Emprendimientos Inmobiliarios Misiones S.A., and Mundo Informatico Paraguay S.A.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi asked Japan to release $3 billion worth of Iranian funds that are frozen in Japan because of U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported Aug. 22. Raisi recently asked Japan’s foreign minister to release the funds, which were generated from gas export sales but are frozen due to expansive U.S. sanctions on Iran’s banking and energy sectors, the report said. “The improvement of ties with Japan is of great importance for Iran. ... Any delay in unblocking Iranian assets in Japanese banks is not justified,” Raisi told Japan’s foreign minister, according to the report.
A former top U.S. national security official argued for a more cautious approach to U.S. sanctions policy, saying the administration should seriously assess whether sanctions will work before making them a default foreign policy tool. Although “sanctions can work” when they impose consequential political or economic costs, many U.S. sanctions today don’t have as strong of a purpose, Gregory Treverton, chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2014 to 2017, said in an Aug. 15 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. When the U.S. “targets individual Russians or Chinese or Iranians, it is almost always a symbolic gesture, like indicting foreigners who will never be extradited,” Treverton said. “Symbols matter but concrete results are better.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 23 announced sanctions against a high-level Eritrean military official for his role in human rights abuses committed during the ongoing conflict in Tigray. Gen. Filipos Woldeyohannes, chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces, was added to the Specially Designated Nationals list on the same date. Filipos was designated under the Magnitsky Act “for being a leader or official of an entity that is engaged in serious human rights abuse,” the OFAC release said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control recently sanctioned three Cuban government officials for their roles in connection with the suppression of protests in the country, it said. The agency added Roberto Legra Sotolongo and Andres Laureano Gonzalez Brito of the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces, as well as Abelardo Jimenez Gonzalez of the Cuban Ministry of Interior, to the Specially Designated Nationals List on Aug. 19. The designations mark the fourth round of sanctions since pro-democracy protests started in Cuba on July 11.
The Biden administration sanctioned two Russian individuals and a Russian vessel involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, the State Department said on Aug. 20. The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the parties under the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEESA), which authorizes sanctions against Russia’s energy sector and its use of energy export pipelines. "The administration continues to oppose Nord Stream 2 as a bad deal for Ukraine, and a bad deal for Europe, and a harmful Russian geopolitical project," State spokesperson Ned Price said during a briefing. "We remain committed to implementing PEESA even as we take steps to reduce the risks an operational NS2 pipeline would pose to European energy security and the security of Ukraine and frontline NATO and EU countries."
It remains unclear how strictly the U.S. will enforce sanctions against the Taliban to try to cut the group off from the U.S. financial system as it overtakes Afghanistan, Brian O’Toole, a former Treasury Department sanctions official, told NPR’s Marketplace Aug. 17. “If the Taliban come in and are, quote-unquote, kind of reasonable upfront -- they’re not stoning people in soccer stadiums right away kind of thing -- you could see a scenario in which the U.S. is not as interested in enforcing sanctions,” said O’Toole, a sanctions expert at the Atlantic Council. He said the U.S. may be waiting to first see how the Taliban operates. More concerning actions, including human rights abuses, could lead to strict enforcement of U.S. sanctions. The White House has declined to answer specific questions about how it will impose sanctions against Afghanistan and the Taliban, but National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said sanctions are being considered (see 2108170075).
The United Nations Security Council on Aug. 16 called on member countries to allow “unhindered” humanitarian access to Afghanistan amid the countrywide takeover by the Taliban. Countries should allow “immediate” access for “humanitarian actors providing assistance, including across conflict lines, to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches all those in need,” the UNSC said. U.S. sanctions regulations include carve-outs and licenses for some humanitarian activities, although groups have criticized the sanctions for hindering their work (see 2105260047). The European Union recently expanded its guidance for humanitarian efforts in countries subject to sanctions (see 2108170031).
The U.S. may turn to more sanctions to retain leverage over the Taliban after President Joe Biden decided to withdraw U.S. troops from the country, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Aug. 17. Sullivan said the U.S. will use various foreign policy “tools” to address human rights violations by the Taliban, but he declined to elaborate much further. “I’m not going to go into the full panoply of things that we can do,” he said, “but there are obviously issues related to sanctions” and “other steps” the U.S. can take.