Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration secretly agreed to lift United Nations sanctions on two of Iran’s missile financing institutions as part of a package…
Export Controls & Sanctions
The Wisconsin Project conducts research and advocacy to support robust controls on strategic goods and enforcement of autonomous and international sanctions. Export controls and sanctions are powerful means of inhibiting the spread of technologies used to make weapons of mass destruction. Listed below is a selection of the Wisconsin Project’s work in these areas, including analysis of export control enforcement cases, Iran sanctions violations, and commentary on U.S. export control policy.
Quietly, U.N. Signals Violation by Iran of New Resolution
According to a July 2016 report by the U.N. Secretary General, Iranian firms participated in a defense trade show in Iraq last March, in potential violation of U. N. Security…
Canadian-Iranian Businessman Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy to Ship U.S. Electronics to Iran
Ali Reza Parsa, a businessman with dual Iranian and Canadian citizenship, pleaded guilty in federal court in January 2016 to conspiring to ship U.S.-origin electronic components from the United States to…
Iran Air, Prospective Buyer of Boeing Planes, Linked to North Korean Missile Shipments
The House of Representatives approved two measures last week aimed at blocking Boeing from selling commercial aircraft to Iran. The vote comes a few weeks after Boeing announced a preliminary…
Treasury Gives New Guidance, but Banks Still Wary
The U.S. Treasury Department released new guidance on June 8 that appears intended to reassure European and other non-U.S. banks wary of doing business with Iran. In an updated explanatory…
Missile Sanctions Must Target Iran’s Suppliers
On May 9, a senior Iranian defense official announced the recent test of “a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a margin of error of 8 meters.”[1] Iran’s…
New Guidance on U.N. Procurement Channel Raises Larger Questions about Iran Deal Enforcement
This week, the United Nations published some guidance about a critical part of the nuclear agreement with Iran: the procurement channel. Sales to Iran of items controlled by the Nuclear…
CEO of U.S. Metallurgical Company Charged with Illicit Export of Metallic Powder to Iran
The CEO of a New York-based metallurgical company has been arrested on charges of illegally exporting a specialized metallic powder from the United States to Iran, the U.S. Justice Department…
Who are the Iranian Sanctions Violators Pardoned on Implementation Day?
On January 17, 2016 – the day after implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran – President Barack Obama announced the details of another agreement with Iran: four Americans who…
Chinese Man Convicted on Charges of Exporting U.S.-Origin Pressure Transducers to Iran
On January 27, 2016, Chinese national Sihai Cheng pleaded guilty to six counts related to the export of American-made pressure transducers to Iran in violation of U.S. export laws. He had…