On Thursday, April 18, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions on Iran following its April 13, 2023 attack on Israel. OFAC designated 16 individuals and ten entities as Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN), specifically those involved in Iran's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), steel, and automobile industries. In coordination with OFAC, the UK 's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has also announced that it is introducing sanctions on Iran.
In a separate announcement, the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced new changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) which further restrict Iran's access to "low-level technology" and expand the scope of items which require a license for export or re-export to Iran. The new restrictions build on Commerce's February 2023 action targeting Iran's involvement in supplying drones to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and impose further restrictions on items that are reexported or exported from abroad to Iran, Russia, Belarus, or the Temporarily Occupied Crimea region of Ukraine and covered regions of Ukraine, which now constitutes all items identified in BIS's "Common High Priority List."
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.