Germany supplied Syria with sarin gas components as recently as 2011
German companies supplied Syria’s regime with dual-usage chemicals, which can be applied for military and civilian use, as late as 2011.Given Germany's booming trade with Iran, is anyone really surprised?
The chemicals involved – sodium fluoride, hydrofluoric acid and ammonium hydrogen fluoride – can be used to manufacture sarin, the deadly nerve gas used during the August 21 attack on the edge of Damascus, which killed more than 1,400 people, according to the US government.
The firms delivered larger volumes of these chemicals than previously disclosed in September, German broadcaster ARD reported last week.
A week before Chancellor Angela Merkel’s September 22 election victory, a Left Party deputy revealed that German companies, under successive coalition governments between 1998 and 2006, supplied Syria with chemicals.
Merkel told ARD television before her election victory, “We are of course looking into all allegations on this, but from what we can see so far the export license was for civil use.”
According to the new ARD report, German companies delivered roughly 350 tons of dual-use chemicals to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime between 1998 and 2011. The previous known total of German-sold chemicals to Syria was 135 tons between 2002 and 2006.
The exports included 270 tons of fluoride, which is key in the manufacture of sarin.
Labels: chemical weapons, German-Iranian trade, Germany, Syria
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:29 PM
1 Comments:
Do you remember the video of some German guy interviewed right before the Iraq war, freaking out about Germany giving chemicals to Saddam Hussein, given that he wanted to send them to Israel (and had scudded Israel in Gulf War I)? I'm still waiting for confirmation (or did I miss it) that, along with new chemicals to Israel's executioners, Saddam's "missing" chem weapons are being detected in the Syrian butcher or the Al Qaeda cannibals' gassing operations...
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