The Pew Research Center just released the results of polls taken in several Middle Eastern countries that reveal that large numbers of Muslims are concerned by Sunnia-Shia tensions in their country, with particular concern being expressed, not surprisingly, by Muslims in Lebanon. The most interesting part of the survey comes near the end:

Surveying in Iran presents special challenges, owing in part to U.S. government restrictions on the import and export of goods and services to and from the country. In conducting its survey of Iranian public opinion, Pew Research fully complied with the requirements mandated by the U.S. Government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

If you are wondering how Pew complied with those requirements (I certainly am) then you’re not going to find it in the linked report from Pew. You’re just going to have to take their word that they complied somehow or other.

The problem is that OFAC has already said that conducting surveys in Iran constitutes the export of services to Iran and that it would not grant the required licenses for such surveys. And judging by the recent release of General License E creating a general license for certain limited types of surveys, OFAC still believes that conducting surveys in Iran constitutes an export of services to Iran requiring a license. Under General License E, the only surveys authorized are “surveys relating to human rights and democracy building.” I’m not quite sure how a survey in Iran that seeks to determine, inter alia, the extent to which Sunni and Shia believe in visiting shrines of Muslim saints can be said to relate to human rights or democracy building.

Since General License E does not seem to cover this survey,  a specific license would be required instead.  So I assume Pew must have applied for and received a license here, but I’m puzzled as to why they didn’t come out and say that directly rather than just provide a general assertion that they complied with all requirements.

Let me be clear, however, on one thing. I think it is silly for OFAC to say that conducting a survey in Iran for a report published in the United States constitutes an export of a service to Iran. Like most people, I am contacted frequently by people conducting surveys, generally when I’m sitting down to dinner and generally to ask me my views on some polarizing political topic. Frankly, I don’t see how they are providing any services to me by making these calls. Instead, the only service that they could normally provide is to leave me the heck alone and let me finish my dinner in peace. I tend to think that asking people on the streets of Tehran about their political and religious views is not any more of a service to them.

I don’t normally talk about cases that I have been involved in on this blog, but I’m going to make a rare exception today to talk about OFAC, tennis and the new General License F announced today. The new general license permits the importation of Iranian origin services into the United States in connection with “professional and amateur sporting activities . . . including, but not limited to, activities related to exhibition matches and events, the sponsorship of players, coaching, refereeing, and training.”

The story begins with an email I received several weeks ago from Adel Borghei, a respected tennis referee from Iran who had been invited to referee at this year’s U.S. Open in New York, but the invitation had been withdrawn after he arrived in the United States due to U.S. sanctions on Iran. Section 560.505 of the Iran Transaction Regulations limits U.S. employment of persons ordinarily resident in Iran to those holding certain visas and, in the case of Mr. Borghei, appeared to preclude his being a referee at the Open.

I easily convinced Bryan Cave to take on Mr. Borghei as a pro bono client, and we filed a license application with OFAC requesting permission for him to referee in this year’s Open. And, believe it or not, we got a license in record time on the Friday before the Labor Day Weekend. Mr. Borghei, as a result, was able to referee at the Open after all. This article in the New York Times tells the story in more detail, with a great picture of Mr. Borghei arriving at the Open to get started.

Clearly the U.S. sanctions on Iran were never meant to prohibit the participation of Iranians in athletic events. Cultural and athletic interchanges involving ordinary citizens of both countries may do as much or more to further U.S. diplomatic goals as prohibitions placed on those involved in proliferation activities. And I’d like to think that the license application filed for Mr. Borghei caused OFAC to realize the good that could be accomplished by issuing General License F.

Last week I went up to the Open to watch Mr. Borghei act as a line ref for a tennis match. Regular readers have probably surmised that I enjoy what I do, but I have to admit that this one little success made all the poring over OFAC, BIS and DDTC regulations worth it. Mr. Borghei is a good guy who has always wanted to work the Open, and there he was on the line doing what he enjoyed most.