The
British government was accused Sunday of “carelessness” in the control
of its arms after information emerged claiming that UK officials
authorized, a year ago, the transfer of two chemicals that may be used
in the making of nerve agent sarin to
Syria.
In this regard,
British Business Secretary, Vince Cable, will be asked today (Monday) to
explain why a British company was given export licenses for 6 months in
2012, at a time when Syria’s war in its peak and concern was prevalent
on the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons against its own people.
The
release of the authorizations for potassium fluoride and sodium
fluoride, which may both be used in the fabrication of nerve gas, came
as US Secretary of State John Kerry said his country had proof that
sarin gas had been used in last month’s “massacre” in Damascus.
Kerry
said traces of the nerve agent that were found in hair and blood
samples taken from victims of the Damascus attack that claimed the lives
of more than 1,400 persons, were part of the Obama administration's
case for military intervention in Syria.
The Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills stressed that the authorizations were
granted to an unnamed UK chemical company in January 2012, but the
chemical substances were not sent to Syria since the licenses were
annulled in July in response to tightened European Union sanctions.
In
a previous letter to MPs that was not publicized, Cable said his
officials agreed to the transfer of an unspecified quantity of
chemicals; however, in the knowledge that they were listed on an
international schedule of chemical weapon originators.
The Shadow
Business Secretary Chuka Umunna told The Independent newspaper that it
will be relieving to know that the chemicals were never delivered.
“An
explanation is now required to know why the export of these chemicals
was agreed upon in the first place, knowing that information shows that
chemical weapons were used on multiple occasions in Syria,” Umunna said.
In
the same context, Labor MP Thomas Docherty, a member of the Commons
Arms Export Controls Committee, will be asking the parliament today why
the authorizations of these chemical substances were granted, and to
whom.
According to The Independent newspaper, Cable said in his
letter to the arms control committee that the licenses for the two
chemicals were authorized on the 17th and 18th of January of last year,
adding that they were granted for use in industrial processes, stressing
that the Department for Business officials “evaluated their use to
point out if there is any risk of diverting their use for such an end”.
Even
though the deal to export chemical substances was outlawed by the EU on
the 17th of June as part of sanctions imposed against the regime of
Syrian president Bashar Assad, the licenses were not annulled until the
30th of July.
Chemical weapons experts say the 2 chemical
substances may be used for the fluoridation of drinking water; however,
stressed they may also used be to produce the chemical effect which
makes a nerve agent such as sarin.
A spokespersons for the UK
government said the UK operates one of the most severe arms export
control regimes in the world, adding that the chemicals were for a
legitimate civilian end-use, for metal finishing of aluminum profiles
used in making aluminum showers and aluminum window frames.
Western
intelligence believes chemical weapons including toxic sarin have been
used in the Syrian conflict on 14 occasions since 2012.