Sanctions Archives

Nicaragua Cracks Down on Political Speech, Opposition Ahead of Elections

24Jun

By Spencer HayesNo Comments

Domestic Politics, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, UN Security Council, Sanctions

Nicaragua Cracks Down on Political Speech, Opposition Ahead of Elections

June 24, 2021--Ahead of elections scheduled for November, the Nicaraguan government is arresting opposition leaders and potential presidential candidates who pose political opposition to their current leader, President Daniel Ortega. Locals say the current repression dates back to the government's crackdown on political speech after the uprising against the president in 2018. Lesther Aleman, a university student leader, suggested that the current round-up of opposition leaders is to prevent any challenge to the election in November. "The strategy is to demoralize Nicaraguans, to delegitimize the electoral process to the point that the majority of people will abstain because there is no opposition. That is Ortega’s goal," Aleman told a reporter with Al Jazeera. "That way he can ...

US, EU, UK and Canada Target Belarus Officials with New Sanctions

21Jun

By Spencer HayesNo Comments

Eastern Europe, Sanctions, Types of News: Brief

US, EU, UK and Canada Target Belarus Officials with New Sanctions

June 21, 2021- In a coordinated effort to counter an escalation of human rights violations and repression by Belarus, the European Union, United States, United Kingdom, and Canada announced today a new round of sanctions against individuals and entities close to the Alexander Lukashenko regime. "Today's actions, taken on both sides of the Atlantic, hold accountable those who continue to suppress the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people through abuses of human rights, attacks on the free press, and disregard for other fundamental freedoms," said Andrea Gackju, Director of U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to a press release. EU Sanctions List of Individuals Grows The EU's sanctions now include 78 more people and eight more entities. In total, th...

Beijing Strikes Back Against Western Sanctions

17Jun

By Spencer HayesNo Comments

Diplomacy and International Law, Globalization, Disintegration, Nationalism, Populism, Human rights, Sanctions, Types of News: Brief

Beijing Strikes Back Against Western Sanctions

June 17, 2021--China's National People's Congress passed sweeping legislation last week to retaliate against Western sanctions and those who enact them. The Anti-foreign Sanctions Law gives China's authority to blacklist individuals and organizations who create or implement discriminating measures against China or its citizens or interfere with China's internal affairs, according to a Reuters analysis of the legislation. If targeted and placed on a blacklist, individuals and organizations could face the following consequences: Deportation from ChinaBanned from travel to China.Chinese assets dissolved or frozen.Transaction within China restricted. Western Sanctions The new law comes in response to sanctions that the European Union, United States, Canada and Britain issued ag...

US Government Gives Notice: No More Business With State-Owned Entreprises in Belarus

19Apr

By Patti MohrNo Comments

Communism, Dictatorship, authoritarian, Eastern Europe, Human rights, Sanctions, Types of News: Brief

US Government Gives Notice: No More Business With State-Owned Entreprises in Belarus

April 19, 2021-The U.S. government today announced it is taking action in response to "sharply deteriorating human rights situation in Belarus" since the widely disputed August 2020 election. Since the election, hundreds of thousands of people have protested in the streets to protest the presidential rule of Alexander Lukashenko. The government responded with a violent crackdown. Today the government holds at least 340 people captive as political prisoners, according to the U.S. State Department. The 2020 Elections Russian President Vladimir Putin has recognized Lukashenko as the president of Belarus while the European Union and the United States consider the election to be illegitimate. The EU has said the election was "neither free nor fair" and has issued multiple rounds of san...

22Mar

By Patti MohrNo Comments

Diplomacy and International Law, Domestic Politics, Global Trade, Sanctions, Types of News: Analysis

Kid Gloves Come Off At US-China Meeting

March 22, 2021--The kid-gloves came off at the first in-person meeting between the United States and China under the new U.S. administration. In a sign that tensions between the world's two largest economies are rising, the diplomats exchanged political punches from the beginning. They met first in front of cameras at the beginning of two-day strategic dialogue in Anchorage, Alaska. Typically, televised remarks might be a brief exchange of niceties. But , this exchange was anything but typical. It wasn't brief. And it wasn't polite. In fact, the opening remarks turned into an extended exchange of insults and condemnations between the countries' top diplomats. The United States launched the first blows. U.S. Cites Concerns on Hong Kong, Human Rights and Coercion U.S. Secr...

27Feb

By Patti MohrNo Comments

Diplomacy and International Law, Sanctions

U.S. Provides Sanctions Waiver for Humanitarian Aid to Iran

Feb. 27, 2020--The U.S. Treasury Department published a license granting exceptions to its sanctions regime against Iran for shippers of humanitarian supplies, such as food, medicine and medical equipment. The Swiss government launched the new payment channel late last month as a pilot program in cooperation with the U.S. government. Today's action provides the legal framework for that channel Medical shortages started in Iran after the United States pulled out of the nuclear deal and started new sanctions against Iran. Although the sanctions had exempted medical supplies, trade was disrupted due to concern by traders about getting caught up in the sanctions. According to AFP News Agency, "This in turn has worsened the acute shortage of medicines and led to skyrocketing prices, agai...

Iran Reacts with Defiance to New U.S. Deterrence Strategy

17Jan

By Patti MohrNo Comments

Middle East, Sanctions, Types of News: Analysis

Iran Reacts with Defiance to New U.S. Deterrence Strategy

Jan. 17, 2020-Immediate tensions between the United States and Iran subsided since the two country's attacks and counter-attacks in Iraq earlier this month. While war between the two countries appears less imminent, the path forward points to either inevitable conflict or backdoor diplomacy. Today, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei conducted a rare Friday speech in which he condemned the United States and defended his country's missile attacks against U.S. military bases in Iraq. The strikes inadvertently downed a Ukrainian passenger plane. The United States, meanwhile, intensified its sanctions against Iran, adding Iranian military and political officials and companies trading in Iran's metals industry to its already-large list of sanctioned individuals and entities. ...

8Jan

By Patti MohrNo Comments

Energy Policy, Oil & Gas, Sanctions, Types of News: Brief

‘We Do Not Need Middle East Oil,’ Trump Says

January 8, 2020-As he addressed the nation and the world at the height of an escalating crisis between Iran and the United States, President Donald Trump emphasized American strength in military capabilities, economic growth and natural resources in a sign he is not backing down from the possibility of war with archrival Iran. Trump called on signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran to abandon the agreement, asked the NATO alliance to take a stronger role in the Middle East, and announced new economic sanctions on Iran. Trump showed no sign of de-escalating the conflict with Iran. He said Iranians chanted "death to America" even as the United States signed onto the 2015 nuclear deal and fomented conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Furthermore, he reinforced his decisio...

Former Amb. in Impeachment Proceedings Warns of ‘Hollowing Out’ of U.S. Diplomacy

15Nov

By Patti MohrNo Comments

Diplomacy and International Law, Sanctions

Former Amb. in Impeachment Proceedings Warns of ‘Hollowing Out’ of U.S. Diplomacy

November 15, 2019--In the second day of impeachment live televised hearings in the U.S. House of Representative, Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, warned of a "hollowing out of the State Department" that weakens U.S. diplomats abroad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvPeE-rSQZ4 Ms. Yovanovitch said she lost her position as the ambassador to Ukraine after foreign and private interests used "unofficial back channels" to convince President Trump to remove her. Ukraine: Caught Between Russia and the West Yovanovitch also said Ukraine is "a battleground for great power competition, with a hot war for the control of the territory and a hybrid war to control Ukraine's leadership."

Seized North Korean Cargo Ship Sold for Scrap Metal

22Oct

By Patti MohrNo Comments

Sanctions, Types of News: Brief

Seized North Korean Cargo Ship Sold for Scrap Metal

October 22, 2019-A U.S. court made an order of forfeiture for a cargo vessel named "Wise Honest" that had shipped coal and machinery for North Korea in violation of U.S. and international sanctions. The U.S. Justice Department announced the decision yesterday, saying that it effectively ends the ship's "career as one of North Korea’s largest sanctions-busting vessels.” A Ship's Story In April, foreign maritime authorities intercepted and seized the ship. In May, DOJ Attorneys John Demers and Geoffrey Berman filed a civil forfeiture complaint in a U.S. court against the 17,061-ton, single-hull bulk carrier ship. According to a DOJ statement, it was the first-ever seizure of a ship evading sanctions. The Korea Songi Shipping Company had used the ship to export North Korean coal ...