DESIGNATION AS A ‘STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM’ BY THE US

April 17, 2022

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked President Joe Biden to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, which would activate perhaps the harshest suite of sanctions available with the United States against the government of President Vladimir Putin.

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The US Secretary of State (the minister primarily in charge of foreign relations) has the power to designate countries that “have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism” as “State Sponsors of Terrorism”.
The US can place four categories of sanctions on countries that are on this list: restrictions on US foreign assistance; a ban on defence exports and sales; certain controls over exports of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.
Sanctions can also be placed on countries and persons that engage in certain trade with designated countries.
As of now, there are four countries on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The first to be designated among them was Syria (December 29, 1979), followed by Iran (January 19, 1984), and North Korea (November 20, 2017). Cuba was re-designated as a state sponsor of terrorism on January 12, 2021.

Source : Indian Express