The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation issued a Jan. 31 guidance on its financial sanctions regimes after Brexit, detailing U.K. companies’ reporting obligations and providing information on exemptions, licensing, enforcement, compliance, challenging designations, penalties and more. The guidance also clarifies that the U.K. can introduce its own sanctions regime during the Brexit transition period even though the European Union sanctions regimes will continue to be in effect in the U.K. until the end of the transition period.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control removed sanctions against a COSCO subsidiary that it had designated in September (see 1909250050), according to a Jan. 31 notice. The move removed sanctions from COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co. but kept sanctions against COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman & Ship Management Co., the other COSCO subsidiary designated by OFAC last year. OFAC had recently renewed a license authorizing certain transactions with COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co., which was set to expire Feb. 4 (see 1912200032).
The U.S. sanctioned the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and AEOI Chief Officer Ali Akbar Salehi, Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said during a Jan. 30 press conference. Hook said the AEOI “played a key role in Iran breaching its nuclear commitments” under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Salehi “personally inaugurated the installation of new, advanced centrifuges to expand its uranium enrichment capacity.” The AEOI was designated by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2018.
The State Department sanctioned 13 former Salvadoran military officials due to human rights violations, the agency said in a Jan. 29 press release. The former officials were involved in the “extrajudicial killings” of people taking refuge in a Jesuit pastoral center at a university in El Salvador in 1989. The people are: Juan Rafael Bustillo, Juan Orlando Zepeda, Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, Francisco Elena Fuentes, Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno, Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos, José Ricardo Espinoza Guerra, Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, Carlos Camilo Hernández Barahona, Oscar Mariano Amaya Grimaldi, Antonio Ramiro Avalos Vargas, Angel Pérez Vásquez and José Alberto Sierra Ascencio.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned eight people and on entity related to Russian interference in Ukraine, Treasury said in a Jan. 29 press release. The sanctions target Yuri Gotsanyuk, Mikhail Razvozhaev, Vladimir Nemtsev, Sergei Danilenko, Lidia Basova, Ekaterina Pyrkova, Ekaterina Altabaeva, Alexander Ganov and the Grand Service Express, a Moscow railway company that offers transportation between Russia and Crimea. The sanctions were coordinated with Canada, Treasury said, which announced similar sanctions Jan. 29. The European Union Council sanctioned seven of the eight people Jan. 28 (see 2001280047).
The European Union renewed sanctions against Tunisia for one year, until Jan. 31, 2021, according to a Jan. 28 notice. The sanctions target 48 people involved in “misappropriation” of public funds, the notice said.
The Council of the European Union sanctioned seven people for participating in the organization of Russian local elections in Ukraine, according to a Jan. 28 press release. The people were sanctioned for undermining the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine and are now subject to asset freezes, the notice said.
Kosovo plans to pass the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to introduce sanctions against human rights violators, Kosovo’s deputy prime minister said in a Jan. 23 tweet. The measure would impose asset freezes and travel bans on any person or entity sanctioned under the regime. The United Kingdom has said it plans to impose similar sanctions after Brexit (see 2001100046), and Canada has announced plans to build on its human rights sanctions regime (see 1912180034).
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four international petrochemical and petroleum companies that have transferred hundreds of millions of dollars worth of exports from the National Iranian Oil Company, Treasury said in a Jan. 23 press release. The NIOC is “instrumental” in Iran’s petroleum industry and helps finance Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, the agency said. OFAC sanctioned Hong Kong-based broker Triliance Petrochemical Co., Hong Kong-based Sage Energy HK, Shanghai-based Peakview Industry Co. and Dubai-based Beneathco DMCC.
The U.S., China, Germany, the United Kingdom and others called on the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on people or companies violating the arms embargo or ceasefire in Libya, according to a Jan. 19 press release from Germany’s federal press office. The countries also called on UN member states to enforce the sanctions, “including through national implementation measures.” The statement was issued after the Berlin Conference on Libya, which gathered countries to “assist” the UN in “unifying the International Community in their support for a peaceful solution to the Libyan crisis,” the statement said.