Home > UK sells WMD components to ‘axis of evil’ countries
By Neil Mackay Investigations Editor
BRITAIN is now a leading exporter of components of weapons of mass destruction.
The UK has sold the components for chemical weapons to 40 countries including North Korea and Iran, both deemed part of the so-called “axis of evil”.
Libya, which has only recently come in from the cold after decades of being labelled a “state-sponsor of terrorism”, also bought chemical weapons technology from the UK.
Britain is also selling chemical weapons capabilities to India and Pakistan – deadly enemies whose hatred could boil over into full-scale war.
Details of the sales are contained in the government’s Strategic Export Control report published on Monday. Chem ical weapons are illegal under international law and controlled under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The products that Britain is selling are known as toxic chemical precursors (TCPs) that, when combined with other compounds, create weapons such as sarin – the nerve agent – and mustard gas.
Many of the countries that the UK exports chemical weaponry to have poor human rights records , are in the grip of brutal conflicts , and are terribly impoverished .
Two years ago, the Sunday Herald revealed the extent of the UK’s sale of chemical weapons in an award-winning investigation into Britain’s chemical bazaar. We revealed that some 26 countries – including Libya, Israel and Iran – were buying chemical weapon components from the UK.
The UK has since upped the sale of these components .
Following the Sunday Herald’s investigation , Labour MP Ann Clwyd said she would raise the sale of TCPs with the Prime Minister and ask him to pass legislation allowing MPs to scrutinise all weapon exports.
Nicholas Gilby of Campaign Against the Arms Trade, said the UK’s actions were “potentially very dangerous and destabilising”.
Labour MP Paul Flynn, a critic of the invasion of Iraq, said: “The cynicism of providing weapons to both sides makes it difficult to call the UK’s foreign policy ‘ethical’.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “When we consider export licences we consider the end use as thoroughly as we can.”