Executive Order 13949

Executive Order 13949 is the American authority for sanctioning the conventional arms trade with Iran. President Donald Trump signed it on 21 September 2020 and the Federal Register published it two days later. Its own title is Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to the Conventional Arms Activities of Iran.

Its authorising stack is three statutes: the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act. It rests on The National emergency that Executive Order 12957 declared in 1995 over Iranian petroleum development. The order blocks the property of anyone found to contribute materially to the supply, sale or transfer of arms or related materiel to or from Iran, and of anyone providing training, finance, advice or services for that trade. Section 3 suspends their entry into the United States.

The Secretary of State makes the arms-trade determinations in consultation with Treasury, and Treasury decides the follow-on listings for material support and for ownership or control. That split is why an arms designation and a proliferation designation can land on the same day under different orders, with different triggers and different routes off the list.