A new executive order signed this week allows the U.S. to sanction "foreign persons" responsible for an increase in violence in the West Bank. The order, signed by President Joe Biden Feb. 1, was announced alongside sanctions against four Israelis that recently carried out attacks against Palestinians and a new Treasury Department guidance alerting banks about how they can prevent the financing of violence in the region.
The U.S. may need to take stronger export control actions to stifle Chinese progress in artificial intelligence, including broader semiconductor-related restrictions, a U.S. congressional commission heard this week. But the commission was also warned about the dangers of overly broad controls on more emerging technologies, such as quantum, which experts said could hurt instead of help U.S. competition with China.
The Commerce Department is reportedly investigating whether autonomous-trucking company TuSimple violated U.S. export controls.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked CBS News on Jan. 31 whether it accepted any goods or services from two sanctioned Chinese entities, potentially in violation of U.S. law, while touring China’s Xinjiang region for an article.
U.S. trade policy toward China should concentrate on protecting advanced technology, as opposed to completely decoupling from the Communist country, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Jan. 30.
The U.S. sanctioned three entities it said are helping to fund the ongoing conflict in Sudan between the country’s two warring groups: the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. The designations, announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control Jan. 31, target Alkhaleej Bank Co. Ltd. and Al-Fakher Advanced Works Co. Ltd., two companies controlled by the RSF, and Zadna International Co. for Development Ltd., which acts as a “vehicle for military money-laundering” for the SAF.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned two companies with ties to the Myanmar military along with four of their “cronies” for helping the regime fund itself. The designations were announced days after the U.S. updated its Myanmar business advisory (see 2401300010) and mark the three-year anniversary of the country’s military coup, which sparked multiple rounds of sanctions and export controls by the U.S. and its allies (see 2310310028, 2306210017, 2303240024 and 2107020003).
The U.S. this week sanctioned three entities and one person for providing “critical” funding to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force and Hezbollah financial network, including by generating hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of Iranian commodities to the Syrian government and elsewhere.
The U.S. and the EU are continuing to prioritize export control and sanctions enforcement against Russia, said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s top trade official, and he suggested the EU may soon issue penalties against companies for evading the bloc’s sanctions. He also said the two sides are working on ways they can both put in place new export controls proposed at consensus-based multilateral regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they are blocked by Russia.
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation this week amended the sanctions entry for Muhammad Fadl Abd al-Nabi, navy commander for the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The change updates identifying information for al-Nabi, who was sanctioned earlier this month (see 2401250011).