The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a new general license this week to authorize certain transactions with Belavia Belarusian Airlines, the state-owned flagship carrier of Belarus, which was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2023 (see 2308090025). General License No. 11 authorizes certain transactions with the airline -- and any entity it owns by 50% or more -- that would normally be prohibited by the Belarus Sanctions Regulations.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned more than 30 people, entities and vessels tied to the Iranian-backed Houthis. OFAC said the designations target companies and key Houthi "operatives" in Yemen, China, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands who are helping to fundraise, smuggle and procure weapons for the Houthis.
The U.S. is prepared to increase pressure on Russia through coordinated sanctions with the EU, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sept. 7 on NBC's "Meet the Press." Bessent said that if the EU and the U.S. "can come in, do more sanctions, secondary tariffs on the countries that buy Russian oil," then the Russian economy "will be in full collapse. And that will bring President [Vladimir] Putin to the table." His comments come after what he described as a "very productive" phone call with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He said that the EU and the U.S. are in a race between how long the Ukrainian military can "hold up, versus how long can the Russian economy hold up."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a network of what it said are scam centers operating across Southeast Asia, saying they steal billions of dollars from Americans using forced labor and violence. The designations target people, companies and centers operating in Shwe Kokko, Myanmar, a "notorious hub for virtual currency investment scams," as well as 10 centers and affiliated people and entities in Cambodia.
A British bank failed to stop a newly sanctioned person from withdrawing money even after the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation warned the bank beforehand that the person soon would be designated, OFSI said in an enforcement notice released this week.
The Council of the European Union on Sept. 5 sanctioned two people for human rights abuses in detention centers in Crimea. Vadim Bulgakov and Aleksei Pikin are the head and deputy head, respectively, of the Directorate of the Russian Federal Penal Enforcement Service for Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, and are responsible for the prisoners, including political prisoners, the council said. The council's announcement said the "EU does not recognise and continues to condemn the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation as a violation of international law," a move Russia made in 2014.
The U.S. this week sanctioned Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights for aiding efforts by the International Criminal Court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli nationals for alleged human rights violations in Gaza.
A State Department spokesperson declined to say whether the agency has rescinded the visas of family members of International Criminal Court officials sanctioned by the U.S., as alleged by ICC judge Kimberly Prost (see 2509020041). "Due to visa record confidentiality, we have no comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases," the spokesperson said Sept. 2 in an email. Prost, an ICC judge sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control last month, said this week that some of her sanctioned ICC colleagues have children in the U.S. on temporary visas, and those visas "have been revoked.”
The U.K. on Sept. 3 revoked a sanctions license that previously permitted the continuation of business of Evraz's North American subsidiaries. The license let individuals and corporations continue business operations involving Evraz North America, Evraz Inc. NA and Evraz Inc. NA – Canada and their subsidiary companies.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week removed sanctions on Belarusian national Iryna Litviniuk, which were imposed in 2022 for "exploiting" the Guatemalan mining sector, and Musbah Mohamad M Wadi, who was sanctioned in 2020 for his ties to a network of smugglers "contributing to instability" in Libya. OFAC had originally added Litviniuk to the Specially Designated Nationals List under its Global Magnitsky sanctions regulations, and it added Wadi under its Libya sanctions. The agency didn't provide more information about the delistings.