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The United States Department of Commerce has lifted its sanctions against Ukrspecexport, a Ukrainian state-owned arms trading company, that were imposed in connection with supplies of military equipment to Libya in breach of a United Nations ban, as stated in the official journal of the U.S. federal government.
It is reported that the "rule removes five entities from the Entity List under the destinations of Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates."
Ukrspecexport was found to have exported military equipment to a country on the State Department's State Sponsors of Terrorism List and was subsequently added to the Entity List on March 28, 2013 (according to decision 78 FR 18811).
The decision "to remove this entry from the Entity List was based on information received by the BIS [Bureau of Industry and Security] and further review conducted by the ERC [End-User Review Committee]," a statement reads.
In April 2013, Radio Liberty informed that a report had been presented in the UN raising much concerns due to the fact that large batches of weapons were transported from Libya to neighboring countries, increasing an arsenal of weapons used by extremist and criminal groups in Syria, Mali and the Gaza Strip.
The report stressed that Libya had become a key supplier of arms in the North Africa region and beyond. The UN report said that more than 12 countries were involved in illegal arms transfers from Libya. The weapons included man-portable air defense systems, explosives, mines, small arms and ammunition.
The UN report was 94-pages long and was prepared by a team of experts from the UN Security Council charged with monitoring the observance of the international arms embargo in Libya.
The experts noted that in spite of the embargo, arms transfers, nevertheless, had found their way to Libya. In particular, there were reported cases of ammunition transfers to Libya from Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Armenia and Albania.
Qatar and the UAE had been providing arms and ammunition to support the Libyan opposition forces fighting against the Gaddafi regime. Those shipments took place in breach of the UN embargo, it was noted.
Mainly civilians and various brigades took control over the supplied weaponry in Libya due to poor governance in the country, according to the report.
Lack of good governance and security were the main obstacles for a safe control over the arms transfers and the Libyan border.