On November 5, 2018, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) took several actions to finalize the re-imposition of sanctions against Iran in response to President Trump’s May 8, 2018 decision to cease the United States’ participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”). See our previous blog posts here regarding the President’s May 8, 2018 decision to cease the United States’ participation in the JCPOA and here regarding Executive Order (“EO”) 13846, issued on August 6, 2018, which consolidated and reissued several sanctions provisions that had been suspended or revoked while the JCPOA was in effect.
On October 16, 2018, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated certain Iranian entities and banks as Specially Designated Nationals (“SDNs”) pursuant to Executive Order (“EO”) 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorism. A full list of those entities designated as part of this action is available here. US Persons (i.e., entities organized under US laws and their non-US branches; parties physically located in the United States; US citizens and permanent resident aliens wherever located or employed) are prohibited from dealing directly or indirectly with SDNs. Under the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (“ITSR”), non-US entities owned or controlled by US Persons are also prohibited from dealing with SDNs that are located or based in Iran (regardless of their reason for designation) or owned or controlled by the Government of Iran (regardless of where they are located).
On June 27, 2018, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) announced that it was amending the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (“ITSR”) to revoke or narrow certain general licenses issued as part of the US sanctions relief implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”), replacing them with more limited wind-down authorizations. Importantly, OFAC stated that these actions were in furtherance of President Trump’s May 8, 2018 decision to withdraw the United States from the JCPOA. As discussed in our earlier blog post, OFAC had previously announced its intent to replace these general licenses with more limited wind-down authorizations in public guidance issued on May 8, 2018, which OFAC updated in connection with these changes.
Executive Summary Effective May 8, 2018, the US Government withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”). The US Government will re-instate the sanctions that were lifted or waived following the implementation of the JCPOA. This action has a greater impact on non-US persons because most of the lifted or waived sanctions were secondary sanctions targeting activities of non-US companies occurring outside of US jurisdiction. The sanctions will be re-instated on August 7,…