The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Iranian intelligence operatives who targeted a U.S. citizen and Iranian dissidents to silence their criticisms of the Iranian government, OFAC said Sept. 3. The agency designated senior intelligence official Alireza Shahvaroghi Farahani, who led a failed kidnapping attempt against a U.S. journalist and human rights activist. Others involved in the plot were intelligence operatives Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori, all of whom were also sanctioned. OFAC said they researched options to abduct the journalist in New York City and transport him to Venezuela on “military-style speedboats.” The group also targeted dissidents in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United Arab Emirates, OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Sept. 2 removed four entries from its Specially Designated Nationals List. Three are Balkans related: Jovan Djogo, Momcilo Krajisnik and Dragan Nikolic. The fourth is Cuba-related, the vessel Hermann. OFAC also revised two Cuba-related entries for the vessels Sand Swan and Tifon. The agency didn’t immediately provide more information on the changes.
The U.S. should rethink sanctions against the Taliban and potentially Afghanistan, which likely will not work as intended and could lead to severe humanitarian consequences, said Husain Haqqani, an expert with the Hudson Institute and Pakistan’s former ambassador to the U.S. Haqqani said sanctions against the Taliban only “threaten to compound the already dire challenges of Afghan citizens,” adding that the country will soon run out of fuel and will need to import food. “With the serious potential for a nationwide humanitarian crisis,” Haqqani wrote in an Aug. 27 opinion piece in The Washington Post, “it would make sense to rethink the blunt instrument of sanctions.”
Companies and other entities should remember to file annual reports on blocked property to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (see 2107070005) by Sept. 30, Thompson Hine said in a September alert. The reports should cover property that became blocked July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. The alert includes details on the various blocked property reporting requirements and submitting the report to OFAC.
The Office of Foreign Assets Controls is seeking comments on the effectiveness of its licensing procedures for exporting agricultural goods, medicine and medical devices to Sudan and Iran from Oct. 1, 2016, through Sept. 30, 2018, OFAC said Aug. 31. The information gathered by OFAC will be used as part of its biennial report to Congress on its licenses procedures for such exports, and the agency asked commenters to be “as specific as possible.” Comments are due Oct. 1.
China could be an important economic and diplomatic lifeline for the Taliban as the group takes over the Afghan government and faces a range of sanctions (see 2108260055), the German Marshall Fund said Aug. 27. Beijing has power to sway decisions by the United Nations Security Council and is “more comfortable threatening its veto” on UNSC sanctions and embargo issues, which could give it leverage over the Taliban, the GMF said in a post written by China experts Bonnie Glaser and Andrew Small. “In a context where the Taliban know they will not receive real economic backing from the West -- at least not without conditions they will find unacceptable -- China is one of the few places they can turn.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is alerting users of its website and sanctions list data files of upcoming technical changes. The agency is beginning its annual renewal of the public certificate for its website, including its sanctions list downloads, and said its existing certificate will be replaced Sept. 1 at 9 p.m. The process will take about three to six hours, OFAC said. Users may need to update their configuration to trust the renewed certificate “if your application pins or otherwise trusts the serial number of the existing certificate as part [of] your application functionality,” OFAC said. OFAC said all applications should trust the new certificate by Sept. 1 to “prevent loss in functionality.” The notice includes a link to the new certificate and renewing instructions.
Although it prefers multilateralism, the Biden administration will likely continue to use secondary sanctions when coordination with allies isn’t possible, the Center for a New American Security said Aug. 26. But the think tank said the strategy may present challenges, especially with the rise of new blocking statutes designed to counteract the effects of extraterritorial sanctions. While the European Union’s blocking statute “has not been effective” because of enforcement and implementation issues (see 2108020030), CNAS pointed to China’s recently introduced blocking regulations, which could present compliance challenges for multinational companies (see 2107080057 and 2108040031). Russia has also drafted its own rules to penalize firms that comply with U.S. sanctions, although they haven't been enacted, CNAS said.
Although the U.S. should continue to impose severe sanctions against the Taliban, some collaboration with Afghanistan and other adversaries in the Middle East may be required to deliver humanitarian aid to Afghan citizens, experts said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control extended a general license that authorizes U.S. academic institutions to exports certain “online educational services” and software to Iran, the agency said Aug. 24. General License M-1, which replaces General License M (see 2010290043), was extended through 12:01 a.m. EDT Sept. 1, 2022. The original license was scheduled to expire Sept. 1, 2021.