The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a member of Lebanon’s Parliament for corruption, the agency said Nov. 6. The designation targets Gibran Bassil, president of the Free Patriotic Movement political party. OFAC said Bassil has held several “high-level” positions in the Lebanese government and has been “marked by significant allegations of corruption.”
The European Union renewed its sanctions regime against Turkey’s illegal drilling activities in the Mediterranean for one year, a Nov. 6 notice said. The regime, extended until Nov. 12, 2021, currently targets two people.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation renewed two designations under its terrorism and terrorist financing sanctions list, a Nov. 4 notice said. The U.K. renewed sanctions against the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
The State Department removed certain sanctions from an Islamic organization in western China, it said in a notice released Nov 4. The move revoked the designation of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement as a “terrorist organization” under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The United Kingdom Nov. 3 published guidance for its sanctions regimes covering Nicaragua, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Lebanon, and for its cyber-related designations. The guidance documents will help companies comply with the sanctions regimes after the U.K. leaves the European Union Jan. 1, 2021, the U.K. said, and covers prohibitions and requirements in each set of regulations.
More than 70 countries voiced their support for the International Criminal Court, criticizing U.S. sanctions against the body. They are “undeterred by any measures or threats against the Court, its officials and those cooperating with it,” the nations said in a Nov. 2 statement. Signers include France, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended two entries on its Burundi sanctions list, it said Nov. 2. The revisions update identifying information for government officials Godefroid Bizimana and Gervais Ndirakobuca.
The European Union extended by one year its sanctions regimes for Moldova and Burundi, the EU said Oct. 30. The regimes will be in force until Oct. 31, 2021.
The U.S. renewed a national emergency authorizing sanctions against Sudan despite suggesting that it was considering ending some restrictions, the White House said Nov. 2. “Despite recent positive developments,” the White House said, the crisis in Sudan “has not been resolved” and continues to threaten U.S. security.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a sanctions advisory and guidance on Oct. 30 about the risks associated with dealing in high-value works of art. The guidance outlines which art markets may present sanctions risks and urges galleries, museums, agents, auctioneers and collectors to maintain a compliance program. OFAC also stressed that transactions involving expensive artwork are “not categorically exempt” from the Berman Amendment to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act. The amendment “generally exempts” imports of art from IEEPA regulations, but OFAC said it does “not interpret this exemption to allow blocked persons or their facilitators to evade sanctions by exchanging financial assets such as cash, gold, or cryptocurrency for high-value artwork or vice versa.” OFAC said it will apply both IEEPA and TWEA sanctions on any art-related dealing involving a blocked person “to the extent the artwork functions primarily as an investment asset or medium of exchange.”