The Group of 7 nations, including the U.S., are considering new sanctions against Iran in response to the country’s missile attacks against Israel this week, the White House said in a statement. A State Department spokesperson declined to say what type of sanctions the countries may take, but added that the U.S. “can always look to identify new ways to impose sanctions on Iran or to increase enforcement of our existing sanctions,” and “those are the measures that we’re looking at right now.”
The U.K. Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Oct. 3 added CJSC Alfa Bank Belarus to its Belarus sanctions regime. OFSI said the bank carries out business in the country's financial services sector, which is a "sector of strategic significance to the Government of Belarus."
Norway is adding a new annex to its export control list to cover a set of “critical goods and technologies” that aren’t currently subject to export licensing requirements, including certain advanced semiconductors and quantum computers, according to an unofficial translation of an Oct. 3 notice from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The new annex, effective Nov. 1, will cover items that “are considered disruptive technologies or emerging technologies that are of such a nature that they should be subject to control,” the ministry said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week published the second quarterly update of its new boycott requester list, a list of entities that have asked other companies to boycott goods from certain countries in violation of the Export Administration Regulations.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., urged the Biden administration this week to expand the export control exemption it intends to give Australia and the U.K. under the AUKUS security partnership.
The U.K.’s Department for Business & Trade will soon remove a “licensing consideration” that outlines a pathway for U.K. companies to apply for a license to provide certain services to their Russian subsidiaries, the agency announced this week. Beginning Oct. 31, the U.K. will remove wording from its statutory guidance on Russia sanctions that described this license, saying it may no longer “be consistent with the aims of the sanctions regime.”
The U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Oct. 1 added two new frequently asked questions to provide guidance on how sanctions apply to Russia-related securities settlements and trust services.
The State Department this week sanctioned two Israelis that it said are involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The agency said Eitan Yardeni joined a group that invaded the Palestinian town of Khallet Al Dabaa and attacked its inhabitants, and Avichai Suissa is the CEO and director of Hashomer Yosh, a group sanctioned by the U.S. in August for supporting other U.S.-designated Israeli groups and people in the region (see 2408280023).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned several China-based companies, a person in Iran and others for helping to move weapons, dual-use items or commercial goods in support of the Houthis, the Yemen-based group that the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization in January (see 2401170025).
The U.K.’s financial oversight agency fined Starling Bank nearly 28 million pounds, or almost $40 million, for a “shockingly lax” set of screening controls that led it to onboard thousands of “high-risk” customers with possible ties to sanctions.