On June 10, 2025, the Government of Canada announced the addition of two individuals to the Special Economic Measures (Extremist Settler Violence) Regulation (the “Regulations”). The amended Regulations entered into force the same day. Canada designated Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, and Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Minister of Finance, for their alleged facilitation of the “expansion of settlements and outposts in the West Bank and “contributing to a more permissive environment for higher…
On 1 June 2025, the revised Swiss Ordinance on Measures against Belarus (“Belarus Ordinance”) entered into force, thereby implementing the EU’s latest Belarus sanctions. These sanctions had been adopted alongside the EU’s 16th sanctions package against Russia on 24 February 2025, which Switzerland implemented on 15 May 2025 (see blog post here). With this revision of the Belarus Ordinance, Switzerland continues to align its sanctions regime against Belarus with the sanctions against Russia, thereby preventing…
Since we published our blog post on the relaxation of the Syria sanctions over the weekend, there have been two more related developments this week: (1) US guidance on the Syria sanctions relaxed on Friday, May 23, and (2) the EU’s move to formally lift nearly all of its remaining sanctions on Syria. United States: Guidance on Syria Sanctions Relaxation On Wednesday, May 28, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) in the US Treasury…
In less than two weeks, we have seen Syria go from one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on the planet to a country well on the road to establishing normal trade relations with the Western world. The latest flurry of developments started on May 13, 2025, when President Trump caught much of the world by surprise when he said in a speech in Riyadh: “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria…