WASHINGTON: The US has added more than two dozen entities to a trade blacklist on Monday over alleged support of weapons and drone development programmes in Pakistan and Iran, and other issues, including aiding Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

The 26 targets, mostly in Pakistan, China and the United Arab Emirates, were said to have violated export controls, been involved in “weapons programs of concern,” or evaded US sanctions and export controls on Russia and Iran, said the Commerce Department.

Their addition to the so-called “entity list” restricts them from getting US items and technologies without government authorisation.

“We are vigilant in defending US national security from bad actors,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez in a statement.

Internet surveillance firm Sandvine removed from US trade blacklist

“Our actions today send a message to malicious actors that if they violate our controls, they will pay a price,” he added.

Nine of the entities from Pakistan were added for acting as front companies and procurement agents for a Pakistan-based company added to the Entity List in 2014. The remaining seven Pakistani entities were added for contributions to Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security said on Monday.

Since 2010, the group was said to have procured US-origin items by disguising their end users.

Six entities in China were added to the list for allegedly acquiring US-origin items to support China’s military modernization or to aid Iran’s weapons and drone programs, among other reasons.

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And three entities in the UAE, alongside another in Egypt, were said to have acquired or attempted to obtain US components to avoid sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The US Commerce Department also removed Canada-based Sandvine from the entity list, after the company took steps to “to address the misuse of its technology that can undermine human rights.”

The company had been added to the list in February 2024 “after its products were used to conduct mass web-monitoring and censorship and target human rights activists and dissidents, including by enabling the misuse of commercial spyware,” the Commerce Department said.

Sandvine supplies what is known as deep packet inspection technology, which examines and manages network traffic, and the Pakistan Telecom­munication Authority has been one of its past clients.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024