U.S. Designates Syrian Port Operators and Ship’s Agents as SDNs

On August 3, 2015, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) designated, among others, six Syrian entities as property in which the Government of Syria has an interest. Those six entities are now identified on the Specially Designated Nationals (“SDN”) List with the “Syria” program tag. The six entities are involved in maritime commerce and consist of the following: the General Directorate of Syrian Ports, Lattakia Port General Company, Tartous Port General Company, Syrian General Authority for Maritime Transport, Syrian General Shipping Agencies Company (“Shipco”), and the Syrian Chamber of Commerce. The designations were made pursuant to Executive Order (“E.O.”) 13582, and as a result of the designations, any property of those entities in the U.S. is blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Read our client alert for more information.