President Barack Obama on Jan. 13 issued an executive order (here) directing the removal of sanctions on property and interests of the Sudanese government, and the removal of prohibitions on imports from and exports to the country, to take overall effect July 12, as outlined in a letter from Obama to Congress (here). "The 180-day delay period of the order's effective date with respect to removing these provisions is intended to encourage the Government of Sudan to sustain its efforts in these areas." Obama's order would also rescind Executive Order 13412, which continues blocking the Sudanese government and specifies prohibitions relating to Sudan's petroleum industry. However, the national emergency regarding Sudan will remain in place, Obama said. Obama tasked the Secretary of State and interagency partners to review Sudanese government actions annually after his order takes effect.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control announced (here) that it will implement “HTTP Strict Transport Security” headers on Treasury.gov on Jan. 12 during an “evening maintenance window.” The action will affect users of OFAC’s Sanctions List Data Files, though no downtime associated with the change is anticipated, OFAC said. However, the change will affect several domains and sub-domains, and will force users to the “HTTPS site,” while not allowing browsers to redirect from HTTP to HTTPS. This could impact scripts users have developed to poll Treasury.gov for data, OFAC said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added 12 individuals and one entity to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under Magnitsky-related and counterterrorism designations, OFAC said (here and here).
The Bureau of Industry and Security is issuing a final rule to add five persons to the Entity List under destination of Turkey, to remove one entity under the destination of India, and to revise five existing entries on the list under the destinations of Armenia, Greece, Pakistan, Russia and the United Kingdom, the agency said (here). Furthermore, the final rule will revise the license requirement under the destination of Russia to conform with General License 11 issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control on Dec. 20 (see 1612210019), BIS said. Aligning with the general license, BIS is making a conforming change modifying the listing for FAU Glavgosekspertiza Rossii under the destination of Russia; specifically, BIS will change the license requirement column in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) for this entity to specify that the Entity List's license requirements don't apply to items subject to the EAR related to transactions authorized by OFAC pursuant to that license. The license authorizes transactions otherwise prohibited by Executive Order 13685 of Dec. 19, 2014, that are "ordinarily incident" and necessary to requesting, contracting for, paying for, receiving or utilizing a project design review or permit from FAU Glavgosekspertiza Rossii’s office(s) in the Russian Federation, provided that the underlying project is located wholly within Russia.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added three individuals and two entities to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under transnational criminal organizations designations, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added two individuals to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under counterterrorism designations, OFAC said (here).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added 18 individuals and five entities to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under counterproliferation and Syria designations, OFAC said (here).
The interagency End-User Review Committee, as ordered through the Bureau of Industry and Security, is adding 23 entities to the Entity List under destinations of Russia and the Crimea region of Ukraine, BIS said (here). The action, which will take effect Dec. 27, follows the Office of Foreign Assets Control's addition of seven individuals, eight entities and two vessels to the Specially Designated Nationals list, under Russia/Ukraine designations, as well as OFAC's addition of 26 entities to its Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List under Russia/Ukraine designations (see 1612210019).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing a final rule to amend the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations to reflect agency licensing policies and address public inquiries, OFAC said (here). The rule will make changes related to authorized sales of agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices to Iran pursuant to the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, and clarifies definitions of “goods of Iranian origin” and “Iranian-origin goods,” OFAC said. The final rule will take effect Dec. 23.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control added one individual to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, under counterterrorism designations, OFAC said (here).