Humanitarian-related rule amendments and FAQs

OFAC has posted a Notice of Recent Actions announcing amendments to multiple regulations to add or revise certain general licenses (GLs) across a number of OFAC sanctions programs to ease the delivery of humanitarian aid. Specifically, OFAC issued or amended four GLs across a number of OFAC sanctions programs authorizing the following four categories of activities:

•  the official business of the U.S. government;
• the official business of certain international organizations and entities;
• transactions in support of certain nongovernmental organizations’ activities; and
• the provision of agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices, replacement parts and components, or software updates for medical devices for personal, non-commercial use

See 87 FR 78484.

OFAC is separately updating a regulatory interpretation in several sanctions programs’ regulations to explain that the property and interests of property of an entity are blocked if one or more blocked persons own, whether individually or in the aggregate, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest in the entity. See and 87 FR 78470.

Both documents are effective today, on publication.

OFAC is also publishing four new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs 1105, 1106, 1107 and 1108) to accompany this action.