The United Nations Security Council and the United Kingdom removed sanctions from an Iraqi entity this week. The designation targeted Iraq’s State Contracting Water and Sewage Projects Company.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control on June 28 updated a Belarus-related entry on its Specially Designated Nationals List. The update made changes to the entry for Oleg Leonidovich Slizhevsky, head of the Belarus Public Associations Department at the Ministry of Justice.
The U.S. designated Ousmane Illiassou Djibo, also known as Petit Chapori, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, the State Department said June 28. Djibo is a native Nigerian and leader of the Islamic State Group operating in the Sahara region.
The United Arab Emirates recently introduced “significant” changes to how it administers sanctions, expanding its largely multilateral sanctions regime to also include unilateral measures, Akin Gump said June 28. The regime places new obligations on people and businesses in the UAE, including requirements to screen customers, freeze their assets and cut off transactions if customers violate UAE sanctions.
The Treasury Department is seeking comments on an information collection relating to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations, the agency said in a notice. The regulations “pertain to the operation of various economic sanctions programs” administered by OFAC and are used to “monitor compliance” with regulatory requirements. Comments are due July 28.
The U.S. still has “serious differences” with Iran over potentially rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a senior State Department official said, stressing that a deal isn’t imminent. The two sides disagree over a range of issues, the official said, including the nuclear steps Iran must take, the sanctions relief the U.S. will offer and the “sequence” of actions both sides will take. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” the official said, speaking on a June 24 call with reporters. “And since everything is not agreed, we still don't have anything nailed down.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas spoke June 23 about the two countries' disagreements about Nord Stream 2 and plan to work together to ease the U.S.’s concerns, they said. While the U.S. recently waived sanctions against Nord Stream 2 AG (see 2106070065), the company behind the pipeline, the U.S. continues to “believe” the project is “a threat to Europe's energy security,” Blinken told reporters in a joint press conference with Maas.
The U.S. extended the national emergency authorizing sanctions and trade restrictions against North Korea for one year beyond June 26, 2021, the White House said June 21. It said North Korea continues “to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy.
The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended its Russian sanctions regime, revising the entry for Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov in a June 21 financial sanctions notice. Aksyonov was listed as part of the U.K.'s response to Russia's annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol and “continued destabilisation of Ukraine.” The amendment removed “Petro Zyma” as an alternate name for Aksyonov.
The European Union added eight individuals and four entities to its sanctions on Myanmar related to the Feb. 1 military coup and “ensuing repression against peaceful demonstrators,” the bloc announced in a June 21 news release. The United Kingdom added three entities to its Myanmar sanctions regime, as announced in a financial sanctions notice. Both sanctions listings include a travel ban and assets freeze on the listed individual or entity.