Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., announced Sept. 17 that he plans to introduce bipartisan legislation to seize about $300 billion in frozen Russian assets and make the funds available to Ukraine to better equip its military.
The State Department this week announced the designations of four Iran-aligned militant groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The groups -- Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali -- have aided Iran's military, including by planning attacks on U.S. facilities, the State Department said. "Engaging in certain transactions with them entails risk of secondary sanctions pursuant to counterterrorism authorities," it added.
The European Commission on Sept. 16 proposed suspending certain trade concessions made between the EU and Israel and sanctioning members of Hamas, extremist Israeli ministers and violent settlers. The commission also said it's "putting on hold its bilateral support to Israel," except for certain support to civil society and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
The State Department has been approving the vast majority of export license applications involving South Korea, a senior agency official said this week, stressing that the government doesn’t want to be an impediment to defense trade with the close U.S. ally.
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, announced Sept. 15 that he has introduced a bill to authorize the president to sanction current and former Pakistani officials under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for allegedly violating human rights and undermining democracy.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., urged Congress Sept. 15 to pass two pending Russia sanctions bills to pressure Moscow to end its war against Ukraine.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned a network of people and companies that it said are helping Iran move money, sell oil and evade international sanctions. The designations target financial facilitators in Iran, as well as more than a dozen people and companies based in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.
A new State Department export license exemption for underwater drones provides “new flexibility” for companies using those drones for certain commercial and scientific operations, but companies still need to set “careful compliance guardrails” to make sure they’re using the exemption correctly, K&L Gates said in a client alert.
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The State Department is changing the way it treats exports of unmanned drones, a shift that's expected to allow firms to more easily obtain export approvals.