The Commerce Department issued a correction to its final rule that revised the country groups for Russia and Yemen under the Export Administration Regulations (see 2002210031), the agency said in a notice. The notice corrects the rule to “provide an instruction” to remove Yemen from Country Group B, which was the intention of the rule.

The State Department approved a potential military sale to Morocco worth about $240 million, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said March 3. The sale includes 25 “Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift and Evacuation System (HERCULES) vehicles,” 25 machine guns, global positioning systems, smoke grenade launchers and more. The principal contractor is BAE Systems.

The State Department approved a potential military sale to Israel worth about $2.4 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said March 3. The sale includes eight KC-46 aircraft and 17 engines along with receivers, radios and spare parts. The principal contractors are Boeing and Raytheon.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls’ Defense Export Control and Compliance System will be unavailable March 4 from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. EST for system maintenance, the DDTC said March 3. The DDTC urged users to ensure “work in progress is saved” before the scheduled downtime. The DECCS launched Feb. 18 (see 2002190025).

Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross criticized a “blacklist” recently released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that lists 112 companies, including several U.S. businesses, that do business in a disputed Israeli-Palestinian territory. In a March 3 statement, Ross said boycotts against Israel and companies doing business with Israel “are contrary” to U.S. policy, saying the UN list is “anti-business” and ”seeks to isolate Israel, has no factual basis or legal force whatsoever, and should not be adhered to in any respect.” Ross said the U.S. “fully supports the U.S. companies identified on the list and encourages all U.S. businesses to continue to work with and invest in Israeli as well as Palestinian communities.”

The U.S. and Latvia issued a joint declaration agreeing to source only from “trusted” 5G suppliers, saying those efforts will improve national security and benefit their private sectors. “The United States and Latvia believe that it is critical for countries to transition from untrusted network hardware and software suppliers in existing networks to trusted ones,” the declaration, released Feb. 27 by the State Department, said. The declaration comes as the U.S. lobbies other countries to reject Huawei technology and seeks to further restrict foreign sales containing U.S. goods to Huawei (see 2002050047).

The State Department approved three potential military sales worth more than $700 million total, to Jordan, the Netherlands and Tunisia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Feb. 26. The sale to Jordan would include $300 million worth of “Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data” systems, while the sales to the Netherlands and Tunisia would include $85 million worth of “torpedo conversion kits” and $325.8 million worth of “Wolverine Light Attack” aircraft, respectively. The prime contractors for the Jordan sale are Raytheon and the Harris Corporation. The prime contractor for the Netherlands sale is also Raytheon, and the prime contractor for the Tunisia sale is Textron Aviation Defense.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls released a recording of its Feb. 13 Defense Export Control and Compliance System webinar (see 2002070048), covering corporate administrators, user management, access groups, self service. The registration and licensing applications for DECCS launched Feb. 18 (see 2002190025).

The U.S.-Swiss joint mechanism used to export humanitarian goods to Iran is now “fully operational,” the Treasury Department said Feb. 27. Treasury also issued a general license and a series of frequently asked questions to clarify how the mechanism can be used.

The State Department is creating a “Guidance Portal” that contains links to all agency guidance documents, the State department said in a notice. The portal will be available starting Feb. 28 at www.state.gov/guidance. The State Department will accept comments on any of the guidance documents included in the portal, by email at guidance@state.gov.