The U.S. imposed sanctions on a Chinese oil company and its CEO for buying crude oil from Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said July 22. The announcement sanctioned Zhuhai Zhenrong Company Limited and CEO Youmin Li, Pompeo said.The sanctions were originally announced by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on July 22, but the agency did not immediately release detailed information about the sanctions (see 1907220049). Pompeo said the sanctions are part of the U.S.’s “maximum pressure campaign” on Iran.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an advisory on Iran’s “deceptive practices” in the civil aviation industry, detailing Iran’s use of commercial airlines for terrorism, weapons programs and sanctions violations. The eight-page advisory, issued July 23, lists several practices U.S. companies should be aware of to avoid violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. The advisory also reviews the U.S.’s current Iran sanctions regime as well as penalties for committing violations.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on a Chinese national and a Chinese entity under OFAC’s Iran-related sanctions regime, the agency said in a notice. OFAC is sanctioning Youmin Li and Zhuhai Zhenrong Company Limited, an entity with addresses in Beijing and Guangdong, OFAC said. Both Youmin and Zhuhai Zhenrong were added to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is inserting technical changes and adding references in several of its sanctions regimes, OFAC said in a notice in the July 23 Federal Register. The changes amend the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations (GTSR) and the Transnational Criminal Organizations Sanctions Regulations (TCOSR) to make references to the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2018, OFAC said. The agency is also amending the GTSR to “implement and reference” the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act of 2018 and amending the TCOSR to implement a March executive order relating to “significant transnational criminal organizations.” The notice also makes several “technical and conforming changes” to certain provisions of the Hizballah Financial Sanctions Regulations, which corrects two “internal references” and details sanctions exemptions that allow for U.S. compliance with United Nations regulations, OFAC said. The changes take effect July 23.
The European Union Council removed one person from its North Korea sanctions regime and updated the alias for an entity in the same regime, the council said in a July 17 notice. The council removed sanctions from RI Pyong Chol and updated an alias for the Maritime Administrative Bureau, which “assisted in the evasion of” United Nations Security Council sanctions, “including by renaming and re-registering assets of designated entities and providing false documentation to vessels subject to” UN sanctions, the notice said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four officials of Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence accused of human rights abuses, Treasury said in a July 19 press release. The sanctioned officials are: Division General Rafael Ramón Blanco Marrero, Colonel Hannover Esteban Guerrero Mijares, Major Alexander Enrique Granko Arteaga and Colonel Rafael Antonio Franco Quintero. The sanctions follow alleged human rights abuses involved in the arrest, torture and death of Venezuelan Navy Captain Rafael Acosta Arévalo, Treasury said. OFAC used Acosta’s death as justification for sanctioning the Venezuelan military agency on July 11 (see 1907110040).
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on a senior member of Hizballah’s External Security Organization (ESO), which planned terrorist attacks near Lebanon, Treasury said in a July 19 press release. Salman Raouf Salman was added to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List, the agency said. Hizballah’s ESO, the group’s “elite unit” run by U.S.-sanctioned Talal Hamiyah, carries out Hizballah’s international missions, the press release said. Salman is responsible for the group’s foreign operations in Lebanon and terrorism-related activities elsewhere, including in Buenos Aires, Panama, Colombia and Brazil, Treasury said.
The State Department sanctioned four Burmese officials and their immediate family members for “gross human rights violations” related to Burma’s ethnic cleansing of Rohingya, the State Department said in a July 16 press release. The department sanctioned Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Soe Win, Brigadier General Than Oo and Brigadier General Aung Aung. The State Department said these sanctions make the U.S. “the first government to publicly take action with respect to the most senior leadership of the Burmese military.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Iraqi nationals for human rights violations, Treasury said in a July 17 press release. Two are “militia figures” and two are former Iraqi governors, Treasury said. Rayan al-Kildani and Waad Qado, leaders of Iraqi militias, were designated for human rights abuses that include “intimidation, extortion, robbery, kidnapping” and other violent acts. Nawfal Hammadi al-Sultan and Ahmed al-Jubouri, two former government officials, were designated for corruption, smuggling, misusing funds and other charges. All four were designated under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a “network of front companies and agents involved” in procuring enriched uranium for Iran’s nuclear program, Treasury said in a July 18 press release. The entities and people are based in Iran, China and Belgium and worked as a “procurement network” for Iran’s Centrifuge Technology Company, which produces centrifuges in facilities belonging to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Treasury said.