With ongoing threats to the United States’ national security from the Iranian regime, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has placed new sanctions upon Iran by taking action against thirty-seven business entities operating across Asia and the Middle East who are diverting or attempting to divert U.S. items to the regime’s military programs.
The U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Gina M. Raimondo said, “The scientific pursuit of biotechnology and medical innovation can save lives. We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies, and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation to be diverted toward uses contrary to U.S. national security.”
She urged that the U.S. will continue standing strong against the Iranian regime to prevent them from turning ‘tools that can help humanity prosper into implements that threaten global security and stability’.
The recent actions by the BIS were taken and implemented under the authority of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and in particular, the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.
The U.S. Department of Commerce said, “The Entity List is a tool utilized by BIS to restrict the export, re-export, and in-country transfer of items subject to the EAR to persons (individuals, organizations, companies) reasonably believed to be involved, have been involved, or pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”
In regards to the list of entities across Asia and the Middle East that the BIS has found to be involved with assisting the Iranian regime with their activities, the BIS has announced that they have imposed license requirements for all items that are subject to the EAR, with no license exceptions available for any exports, reexports, or in-country transfers to these entities. The BIS has also imposed a license review policy in relation to the presumption of denial for where these entities are concerned.
The companies that have been met with these latest sanctions are organizations that have supplied or attempted to supply any items belonging to the U.S. to the regime that could provide support for their nuclear weapons and missile program.
The thirty-seven entities have all been added to the list as the requirements identify and permit such classification of any entity that has been found to have been ‘acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States’.
