Israel’s Defense Ministry is granting fewer export licenses to the country’s spyware companies amid mounting pressure from the U.S., according to an April 25 report from Globes, an Israeli business news site. The report said Israeli company Nemesis was forced to shut down last month after the country’s Defense Export Control Agency refused to grant it export licenses, and other industry executives have complained about an “abrupt change in policy” toward companies exporting spyware. Other companies -- including NSO Group, Cognyte, QuaDream and Wintego -- are on a “short list” of businesses that have struggled in recent months from a “lack of approvals for new deals and cancellation of export permits that have expired,” the report said.
Egypt recently suspended imports from more than 800 companies after they failed to comply with an Egyptian decree that requires registration of certain production facilities, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported April 29. Under the decree, certain imported products -- including dairy products, oils, fruits, textiles and household appliances -- can be released in Egypt only if their manufacturing facilities are registered with the country’s General Organization for Import and Export Control. The import ban was applied to companies in the U.S., United Arab Emirates, the U.K., China, Germany, Turkey, France, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Malaysia and South Korea, the report said.
The European Council announced in three separate notices April 28 that a group of non-EU European countries aligned with the union's recent sanctions moves on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine; on Iran; and on Myanmar.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced additional sanctions on 287 current and former members of the U.K. Parliament in retaliation for the U.K.'s sanctions on 386 members of the Russian State Duma, according to an unofficial translation. The restrictions amount to a travel ban and include Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the House of Commons.
The EU General Court annulled the European Council acts keeping Ferdinand Ilunga Luyoyo on the EU's Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions list. The court found that Ilunga Luyoyo, the former commander of the National Intervention Legion in the Congolese national police, no longer held the positions that landed him on the list and that the council failed to give sufficient evidence linking him and the security situation in the DRC, according to an unofficial translation.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control amended and reissued its Ukraine-related sanctions regulations, the agency said in a final rule. The action will replace the regulations first published on May 8, 2014, with a more “comprehensive” set of regulations, which includes more information on general licenses and other “regulatory provisions that will provide further guidance to the public," OFAC said. The rule, effective May 2, also changes the title of the regulations to the Ukraine-/Russia-Related Sanctions Regulations and incorporates four directives related to sectoral sanctions, among other revisions. OFAC also revised several frequently asked questions for the regulations.
Canada last week imposed another set of sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine, targeting an additional 11 senior government officials and 192 members of the "People’s Councils of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics." Canada said it will continue to work with allies to hold Russian President Vladimir Putin “accountable” and “will not stop putting pressure on the regime.”
The State Department is “finalizing” discussions with several trading partners on its new open general license concept for certain defense exports, senior agency official Mike Miller. The concept, which could begin as a pilot program, would allow U.S. exports to certain U.S. trading partners without having to apply for a specific license (see 2109290056).
The U.K. issued a General License under its Russia sanctions regime, permitting various law enforcement and regulatory authorities to carry out "any action necessary to comply with" orders made by various U.K. courts, forfeiture notices or external order from the secretary of state. The license permits an individual to carry out any action needed to comply with certain asset recovery developments, including a negotiated settlement with a regulatory agency or an approved deferred prosecution agreement to which a regulatory agency is a party.
The House on April 27 overwhelmingly passed a bill, by a 424-2 vote, that would clarify U.S. sanctions policy on Iranian efforts to acquire unmanned drones. The bipartisan Stop Iranian Drones Act (see 2112010019) would authorize U.S. sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act against anyone who helps Iran acquire unmanned drones or "combat aircraft," including their “commercially available component parts.”