At the heart of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (“OFAC”) implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) lies a seemingly irreconcilable tension. On the one hand, the entire purpose of the JCPOA is to relax the vast majority of secondary sanctions currently targeting Iran in exchange for a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program. On the other, OFAC has traditionally been resistant to making things easy on businesses attempting to deal with sanctioned jurisdictions, even within the bounds of existing authorizations. As one OFAC employee put it at a 2013 sanctions conference at Georgetown University, “generally OFAC’s job is preventing economic activity so even when there is a strong policy favoring certain types of activities, it’s not part of their nature to go out and sort of drum up business.” Aggravating this organizational tension is the fact that a number of secondary sanctions targeting Iran, as well as the entirety of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (“ITSR”) will remain in place even if the JCPOA is fully implemented. These remaining sanctions reflect Iranian regional behavior that the opposed by the United States; thus incentives for OFAC to continue efforts to restrict certain economic activity will not cease post-implementation.

Judging by the Adoption Day guidance put out by OFAC, there’s at least a chance that OFAC intends to support foreign businesses entrance into Iran, as well as the more limited sanctions relief offered to U.S. persons. While the new FAQs comprehensively explain how absolutely nothing has changed, there’s one line tucked in there that me be of some use. According to the document:

“OFAC intends to publish on its website prior to Implementation Day detailed guidance and information on the implementation of U.S. commitments with respect to sanctions under the JCPOA” (emphasis added).

While certainly not a earth-shattering revelation, it does seem to show that OFAC does not intend to remain radio silent right up until Implementation Day. Leaving companies to perform an Implementation Day scramble to interpret what’s likely to be an extensive list of new FAQs, Statements of Licensing Policy, General Licenses, and other relevant documents would be chaotic to say the least. Issuing guidance before sanctions relief actually goes into effect allows OFAC to more effectively triage what will almost certainly be a deluge of feedback from companies, both foreign and domestic. The result will be an international community more able to reenter Iran once the IAEA certifies Iranian compliance with its nuclear-related commitments. Of course this analysis is somewhat dependent on what “prior to Implementation Day” entails. Guidance issued a week before would not be much different than guidance issued the day of.

The quality and scope of the guidance is also important. OFAC has long relied on the opacity of its regulations and operations to restrict economic activity that straddles the gray area between authorized and prohibited. The extent to which OFAC intends to facilitate the expansion of economic ties between Iran and the rest of the world will be determined by the degree to which it attempts to provide clarity to a murky and difficult compliance landscape.

It’s important to recognize that the question of OFAC’s willingness to proactively issue useful guidance is not entirely, perhaps not even primarily, related to organizational culture. Anyone who has in any way followed Congressional discussions surrounding the JCPOA recognizes that the Legislative branch wants Iran to be targeted for non-nuclear behavior. Likewise, the Islamic Republic’s ability to capitalize economically from sanctions relief is almost certainly at the bottom of both Democrats’ and Republicans’ list of Iran-related concerns. Should Treasury appear too eager to encourage, by way of more robust or preemptive guidance, foreign companies to reenter the Iranian market, it’s probable that they would quickly receive an earful from irate members.

At this point, its uncertain when Iran will be able to complete the nuclear-related steps necessary to prompt the arrival of Implementation Day. Iranian government officials claim it will be by year’s-end, while U.S. officials hint it will be more like first or second quarter 2016. Regardless, companies should be on the lookout for new OFAC guidance in the months ahead. The timing of that release will be important for those wishing to be ready to take advantage of sanctions lifting, whenever that occurs.