I was in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on business last week and spent quite a bit of time trying to determine what is going on there with respect to sanctions on Syria and Iran. Speaking with different people in various…

It was reported in Dubai-based Gulf News today that British banking giant HSBC will be closing many accounts belonging to Iranian, Syrian, or Sudanese nationals.  A similar report was featured in the New York times several days ago, detailing how…

Dovetailing last week’s decision by the European General Court that Iran’s Bank Mellat be removed from the European Union’s sanctions list (see last week’s entry on this blog), the court on Tuesday declared that Bank Saderat should similarly be removed.…

Reports are trickling from Europe that the European General Court has ordered the European Union Council to annul sanctions against Bank Mellat. The sanctions were imposed in 2010 following allegations that the bank was associated with Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control entered into a $132 million settlement with the UK’s Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) over alleged violations of U.S. sanctions laws.  The case was the subject of much media scrutiny…

In response to steps taken by the Burmese government to broaden the political space and improve human rights conditions in the country, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has relaxed certain restrictions in the sanctions regime…

There has been some speculation following President Obama’s reelection as to what he will do regarding Cuba. Notably, there have not been any notable changes in the sanctions regime following the first couple years of the President’s first term. A…

I just got a very funny call from a lady in the Los Angeles area tonight. She asked if it is true that “OFAC has been repealed?” What was more odd was that she had hired somebody to file for…

It’s been a long time since my last post.  People often come up and ask what has been going on recently with respect to sanctions matters.  This of course is an open-ended question.  Syria has been in the news as…

Farhad Alavi has appeared twice on BBC Persian this past week discussing pressing topics related to sanctions. The first appearance on June 21 was with regards to the policy practiced by certain Apple stores to refrain from selling to individuals…