How Actions Are Counted | Executive Actions Chronology

Coverage

The chronology includes actions dated January 20, 2025, onward by the White House, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the State Department, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). Countries covered: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the West Bank and Gaza, and Libya. Groups covered: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis (Ansarallah), Iraqi militias (Kata'ib Hezbollah, Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Badr, the Popular Mobilization Forces), ISIS, al-Qaeda and affiliates, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Muslim Brotherhood branches and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Sources

OFAC Recent Actions: the notice for each action, which lists every entry added to or removed from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List with its sanctions program tag. Where Treasury issued a press release, the chronology links it first and the OFAC notice second.
Federal Register API: presidential documents (executive orders, memoranda including National Security Presidential Memoranda, determinations, notices and proclamations); State Department notices designating, amending or revoking Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists; BIS final rules adding parties to the Entity List; and DSCA major arms sale notifications to Congress, as republished in the Federal Register by the Department of Defense (the full transmittal text, including purchaser, value and the date delivered to Congress).

Definitions

OFAC Designations: Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control adds persons, entities, vessels or aircraft to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List under a Middle East program or a counterterrorism authority naming a Middle East group.
OFAC Delistings: OFAC removes entries from the SDN List that were designated under a Middle East program or a counterterrorism authority naming a Middle East group.
FTO and SDGT Designations: The Secretary of State designates a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) or a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), or amends such a designation, as published in the Federal Register.
FTO and SDGT Revocations: The Secretary of State revokes an FTO or SDGT designation, as published in the Federal Register.
Executive Orders: An executive order signed by the President that names a Middle East state, group or the region.
Presidential Memoranda: A presidential memorandum, including National Security Presidential Memoranda published in the Federal Register, on a Middle East subject.
Presidential Determinations and Waivers: A presidential determination, certification or waiver on a Middle East subject, as published in the Federal Register.
Presidential Notices and Proclamations: A presidential notice (such as the annual continuation of a national emergency) or a proclamation restricting entry or trade on a Middle East subject.
BIS Entity List Additions: A Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security final rule adding parties located in a Middle East state to the Entity List.
Major Arms Sale Notifications: A Defense Security Cooperation Agency notification to Congress of a proposed government-to-government sale under section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act to a Middle East state.

How Entries Are Built

OFAC actions. Each SDN entry on an OFAC notice is read with its program tags. An entry counts when it carries a Middle East program tag (Iran, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Libya programs), or a counterterrorism tag (SDGT, FTO) together with a named covered group or a covered country in its address, nationality or identification fields, or a nonproliferation tag (NPWMD, IFSR) with Iran or Syria in the entry. Entries under other tags (for example cyber or CAATSA) count when the entry gives a covered country as its own nationality, or an address in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon or Yemen. A counterterrorism entry that OFAC marks "Linked To" an entry already counted in the same notice also counts. One OFAC notice yields at most two chronology entries: one for additions and one for removals. "Entries" is the number of such SDN entries the notice lists; it counts individuals, entities, vessels and aircraft alike. Only additions and removals count; updates to existing entries do not. Removals are counted from the notice's deletions section. OFAC lists a removed entry once under each of its aliases; the chronology counts each distinct entry once. Treasury press releases sometimes count only individuals and entities, so vessel and aircraft entries can make the chronology's number higher. On a country page, the entry count for an OFAC action covers every Middle East entry in that action, not only the entries located in that country.
Countries and groups. An entry is tagged with the program country, the home country of any named covered group, and the covered countries in which listed parties are located. A country tag therefore means the record names that country; it is not a finding about the country's government.
Presidential documents. Included when the official title or abstract names a covered country or group, the Middle East, or the International Criminal Court (whose 2025 sanctions order cites actions against Israel). The date shown is the signing date.
State Department notices. Dated by Federal Register publication, when State's designation or revocation notice appears there. Terrorism designations of a group by Treasury under Executive Order 13224 (for example, the January 13, 2026, designations of the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood) appear as OFAC designations on the date OFAC lists them.
BIS rules. Included when the rule's summary names a covered country. The entry count is the number of added parties the summary states, across all destinations in the rule; blank when the summary does not state a number.
Arms sale notifications. Dated by the "date report delivered to Congress" stated in the notification; the publication date also appears. Value is the total estimated value stated in the notification. The Federal Register publishes notification text weeks to months after delivery, so the most recent sales appear with that lag.
Titles. The bold line in each entry is written by the Middle East Forum from the record's fields; the official title follows it.

Update Cadence

Updated daily. Each update pulls the OFAC Recent Actions list and the Federal Register API from the last recorded date, re-checks the previous 14 days, and rebuilds every page. Data last pulled October 13, 2026.

Download

Download all actions as CSV

Columns: date, agency, type, title, official_title, countries, groups, entries, programs, value_usd_millions, transmittal, source_url, ofac_notice_url.

Other MEF Data

The Iran Ledger follows the Iranian revenue streams that most Iran-program designations here target.
The Shia Militia Tracker profiles the Iraqi groups named in counterterrorism designations.

Citation

Cite as: Middle East Forum, Executive Actions Chronology, accessed October 13, 2026, https://actions.meforum.org/