Reminder about U.S. laws Iranian Americans should be aware of

December 10, 2009, Washington, D.C. – Trade between the United States and Iran is subject to certain restrictions under U.S. law that even make it difficult for goods and services relating to humanitarian assistance to be exported to Iran.  U.S. economic and trade sanctions on Iran are administered and enforced by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and penalties for violating the OFAC Regulations, even for humanitarian activities, is steep.  Accordingly, given the continuing strong ties between many in the Iranian Diaspora and Iran, it is important that Iranian Americans be fully aware of OFAC Regulations and legal restrictions it imposes on trade with Iran.

In 2008, the Iranian American Bar Association (IABA) published a Working Group Document on the OFAC Regulations governing humanitarian assistance to Iran.  This document focused on the transactions regulations enforced by OFAC, and provided a general discussion on when specific licenses from the U.S. government are needed to export goods, services, or technologies to Iran for humanitarian purposes and how licenses can be obtained.  IABA’s Guide to OFAC Regulations provides concise and basic guideline in very simplified language, and as such should not be considered as legal advice.  Accordingly, the IABA urges everybody to discuss any related issues that may pertain to them with qualified counsel.

Click here to read IABA’s Guide to OFAC Regulations: Providing Humanitarian Assistance to Iran.